


All Fictions

by JeckParadox



Series: Worm AUs [3]
Category: Medaka Box, Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Alt-Power Taylor Hebert, Amorality, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 02:24:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15985610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeckParadox/pseuds/JeckParadox
Summary: Taylor doesn't trigger with a parahuman ability at all, instead finding a different source of powers. Becoming a Minus, with the power of [All Fiction], Taylor takes Brockton Bay by storm, with the goal of binding together the outcasts of the world, and making as many people as possible miserable.Originally posted on Sufficient Velocity under the same name.





	1. Undersiders 1.1

Taylor never won.  
  
It was a simple fact of life at this point. And this, right here, was the ultimate loss. Because she knew, from the bottom of her heart, that the girls had finally stepped over one of the last lines in the sand that could be drawn. This was a step above humiliation, and showed a simple willingness to continue escalating past what Taylor could possibly deal with.  
  
Today, being shoved into a locker filled with used tampons and pads and bugs and blood. Tomorrow... what would tomorrow bring? What would they think of worse than this? Whatever it was, Emma, Sophia, the others, they finally pushed through her limits. There was no way out for her anymore. No way she could win. She would suffer until she was dead.  
  
She had tried giving up, but it just made her suffer more. She had tried fighting back, but she didn't have the power. She was powerless. The weakest person in the world.  
  
But that made her the strongest.

* * *

"Do you think she got out yet?" Sophia asked as they wandered nearby Taylor's locker.  
  
"She's not screaming, at least." Madison said.  
  
"Maybe she likes it in there."  
  
As they came nearby, they watched it, and noticed something off. "It doesn't smell." Sophia said suddenly.  
  
All at once, the door of the locker twisted and crunched as thirteen screws the size of basket balls punctured the locker from the inside out. The shredded remains of the door hit the floor in front of the three girls, and they watched in horror as Taylor pulled herself out of the opening, looking eerily calm and completely clean. The locker was empty, not a single sign of what they had done. Then, between her eyes blinking and opening again, the twisted locker door was back where it belonged.  
  
"Shit. Shit, get behind me, both of you." Sophia said, backing up.  
  
"What's wrong Sophia?" Taylor asked, then she smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, "Man, that was a funny prank, wasn't it? Good work, it must have taken a while to put together. I didn't figure out how to get out until just a moment ago!"  
  
"Bullshit, you were waiting for us to walk by."  
  
"If you think so."  
  
"Taylor, what the fuck did you do?"  
  
"What? I didn't do anything." she said, "I mean, I really didn't. I didn't do anything to deserve any of this."  
  
"Shut up-" all three girls were slammed into the wall, massive screws impaling them to the wall, crucifying all three at once. And then they were back on the ground, in no pain at all. There were no screws, no holes, no damage to even the wall behind them.  
  
"What was that?" Madison asked quietly.  
  
"You have powers! You used them on us!" Sophia growled, "That means I'm allowed to do this!" she leaped forward, turning to shadow form, and solidified just long enough for her fist to knock Taylor back against the wall.  
  
"No I didn't. I didn't do anything, and it's not my fault." Taylor said, her serene expression unchanged. Her false smile still there.  
  
Sophia, snarling, began to hit, and punch, and kick, while Emma hurriedly called the police. Taylor fought back, a little, summoning more screws, but Sophia simply melted around them, not taking a single strike herself. Soon, Taylor was a mass of bruises, broken bones, and messed-up clothing. Her glasses laid crushed on the floor. Sophia, breathing hard, had blood on her knuckles, and a scrap of Taylor's clothes in her clenched fist.  
  
"Ow." Taylor said, casually, without much feeling. "Oh well, it looks like I lost again."  
  
"Fuck yes you lost." Sophia growled, "Because even though you're a Cape now, you don't have shit on me! You having powers changes  _nothing,_  Hebert! Cause I'm standing here, and you're on the ground, and that's how it'll always be, got it?!"  
  
"Stand down!" Armsmaster roared.  
  
"Don't worry, I already have her taken care of-" Sophia began, before absently reaching for her face, skin touching skin. No mask, no gloves. She had outed herself.  
  
She glanced to the left and right, and saw students staring at her, wide-eyed. Enraged, she turned back to Hebert, who- the fake calm and fake smile were gone, she looked utterly miserable, tears flowing freely from her eyes. "Y-You bitch! You set me up!" Sophia growled, grabbing Taylor's shirt and lifting her by it, Taylor was a little taller than her, but she was all bones, Sophia could have  _thrown_  her, if she wanted. She shook Taylor then, and Taylor let out a pained gasp, before going limp in Sophia's grip.  
  
"Hess, put the girl down  _right now_."  
  
"She- She's a Parahuman!" Sophia said, "She attacked me! Me and Emma and Madison! They called you, didn't they?"  
  
"Whatever the case, you won. You beat her. This is just overkill. Now put her down." Armsmaster barked again, and his halberd crackled, lit up like a Tesla coil with electricity.  
  
She didn't need to be told a fourth time. She dropped Taylor, who remained limp, and put her hands up as Armsmaster marched over to her and handcuffed her in front of everyone. "She attacked us. With- with these screw things. They vanished, afterwards, and-" she looked down at herself, at where she  _knew_  she had been pierced through by it, and saw she didn't have a mark on her. And in the fight afterwards, Taylor hadn't been able to get in any more hits, because Sophia was just that good, and because of her power, "She destroyed her locker, but then, she fixed it, after." she said, "Maybe she reverses time, or something. No... that doesn't feel right, she-"  
  
"Quiet." Armsmaster said.  
  
She was quiet.

* * *

Emily Piggot looked through the pictures, and the testimony. "...Well, I'm not sure what to make of this, Shadow Stalker."  
  
"She-"  
  
"Not done yet." Piggot snapped, and Sophia sunk back down into her seat, "We've gone over your own account of what happened, but the facts simply remain: First and foremost, you and your friend Emma seem to be the only ones who saw any Parahuman activity at all. Miss Clements, who you claim was right with you, denies any of it happened."  
  
"She's lying. To cover her own ass."  
  
"Yes, so that she doesn't feel the fallout for this 'prank' you described. The one we couldn't find evidence of."  
  
"She- she must have got rid of it all!"  
  
"Why?" Piggot shook her head, "And I don't mean just why she would get rid of the evidence if her goal was to frame you, I'm also wondering why you'd admit to something so horrible, especially when there's no evidence it happened."  
  
"It caused her to trigger!"  
  
"That can't be the case, because Taylor Hebert is not a Parahuman." Piggot said, "We have the MRI and X-Rays to prove it. She has the potential, but she is absolutely not one currently."  
  
That had Sophia simply looking flummoxed.  
  
Piggot continued, "We found evidence at her home detailing an ongoing account of bullying perpetrated by you and your friend against her, this fits in line with what we saw, which was you assaulting her in the middle of the school, out of costume. Emma also claims to have filled the locker with waste, but no one else who was supposedly in on it has admitted anything, and there's nothing connecting them to it anyway." she began to look angry, "I'm confused, and I'd like for  _someone_  to start making sense."  
  
"But- but it had to be her! I... I saw her, and-"  
  
"...Armsmaster?"  
  
"She genuinely believes that Hebert is a Parahuman, who attacked her. She also believes she committed the... 'prank' that apparently caused the so-called Trigger Event."  
  
"Hm." Piggot shook her head, "Then Master-Stranger Protocols." she sighed, "We should have done this earlier, as soon as she used her powers in public without realizing."  
  
"You- you think I was Mastered? Hebert must have-"  
  
"Was obviously the intended victim. Either that, or she was a casualty of what was likely an successful attempt to make you out yourself." Piggot said, "Armsmaster, take Shadow Stalker and bring her to the isolation cells. Have Emma Barnes located, as well as Madison Clements. Explain to their guardians what we think happened, and arrange for Emma Barnes and her friend to be isolated as well, since they were present. Contact the hospital to isolate the Hebert girl as well."  
  
"Yes, Director."

* * *

Taylor opened her eyes, and quickly gave herself a once over. She was in a great deal of pain, her body had taken a massive amount of harm.  
  
She could, very easily, simply make it so that it had never happened, but she kind of liked it. She had been treated, at the very least, and given some drugs, and her clothes had been taken, replaced with a hospital smock.  
  
She was a little sad that her father would be upset- she really didn't want to be a bother for him, but there was no way he hadn't been told. But then... she could take that away as well. Make all of it a simple fiction. His pain, her pain.  
  
But... not yet.  
  
She'd let Sophia soak in her own fury for a bit. Taylor had lost, but that didn't mean that Sophia  _won._  No. Sophia wasn't going back to Winslow, she was going to have to be taken to some other city, with a fresh identity other than her precious "Shadow Stalker". Hah! If Taylor had any luck, she'd count herself lucky that Sophia was a Parahuman, a Ward. She had been hoping that Sophia would simply get caught by a teacher for doing a level of damage that couldn't be ignored or blamed on someone else. But now, now she had gotten Sophia in trouble with the entire Protectorate!  
  
It was almost enough to make her smile.  
  
She waited in isolation for days, and kept up the innocent act, until the PRT gave up looking for signs of 'continued control' or anything else. They apologized profusely to her for Shadow Stalker's actions- both her most recent beating, as well as the last 18 months of abuse, and when she finally got to meet her Dad again, he was told that she had been told the same thing.  
  
Dad was, of course, miserable. But he was like her, in many ways. Danny Hebert may shrivel, break, and shut down, in the face of adversity, a true loser, like her, but he didn't give up. Even now, he was trying to rebuild their relationship, and even decades later he was trying to rebuild the docks.  
  
It wasn't his fault he failed in both of those things.  
  
She was nice to him. She kept her most genuine smile up for most of the night, helped him with dinner, ate together, and even put on a movie they hadn't watched in a long time. It was pleasant, and awkward, and full of unspoken feelings. She waited until he had fallen asleep before she started erasing evidence of her existence from his memories and from the house. She packed a full suit-case of things she didn't want to leave behind, like clothes and maybe a keep-sake or two. Then she removed her room, her bed, her personal effects, every trace of herself became a simple fiction.  
  
She had already gone ahead and erased her own records at the hospital, and the school, the city, and the PRT. She didn't touch any other memories beside her Dad's, but she almost wanted to see the shitstorm of Master-Stranger Protocols that would follow.  
  
Leaping from the window, she landed, broke her legs in the process, and then decided that breaking her legs had been a fiction, and walked happily along the street. Her new life was ahead of her.  
  
For too long, people like Sophia, the winners of the world, had shit upon everyone else. Not that she cared for 'everyone else' but it still was something she found disgusting. Some people, like her, were born losers, and that wasn't their fault, they didn't do anything. So maybe, she would erase all the winners. Make the world a place of nothing but losers. A place where everyone else was as miserable as her...  
  
Or maybe she'd do something else entirely.


	2. Undersiders 1.2

Coil steepled his fingers as the report passed by his desk.  
  
All in all, it was a disturbing situation for all involved. That an unknown Stranger with such a high degree of memory and data manipulation had been in PRT headquarters, had _gone through_  M/S protocols, successfully outed a Ward, and then promptly vanished off of everyone's radar, had thrown the building into chaos trying to secure their information and double-check to make sure nothing else was lost. Of course, with the powers already shown to be at play, there wasn't much they could do to be  _absolutely_  sure.  
  
Coil considered the facts, and smiled to himself. Being able to erase herself from  _everything_  but Armsmaster's actual armor was an extremely impressive act.  
  
He could use somone like that to hide his trail. And if she was a memory manipulator as well, well, she'd be even more useful to him. Drugs were a very finciky method of brainwashing, after all. And an expensive one. He needed her in his services.  
  
Unfortunately, the entire PRT couldn't find her after several days of looking. She had erased all but the barest hints of her existence. Luckily, he had someone on speed-dial who only  _needed_  a hint. He began to dial, "Tattletale."  
  
"Boss." she said.  
  
"PRT servers have recently been altered by a very powerful Stranger. One I'd like on my side." he said, "I need you to find her."  
  
"What kind of Stranger?"  
  
"Memory manipulator." he said, "Possibly data manipulation as well. She went by the alias of 'Taylor Hebert', but it may be a false name. As soon as she outed Shadow Stalker in the middle of Winslow, and went through PRT M/S Protocols, she erased her own paper trail, and all informational or physical evidence she existed, except for the footage collected and stored within Armsmaster's armor."  
  
"Yikes." she said, "Okay, well, I'll try. I assume you'll want her on your side. Should I offer her a place in the Undersiders if I find her?"  
  
Coil considered it. While he  _would_  need her services personally- but just the same there  _would_  be an element of risk. He wasn't sure if his own power would allow him to see through her memory manipulation if she were to try it on him, and having her go through the Undersiders first would be an early warning system...  
  
"Locate her first. Contact me the instant you do so." he ordered, "I'll give you new orders then. I'm afraid I can't give you much else to start with, but Armsmaster has been cautious and hasn't allowed the footage he possesses back in the servers, fearing she might come back and mess with their computers further. A dossier has been assembled, however, and a sketch of the girl included."  
  
"Got it. It'll have to be enough, I guess."  
  
"It better. I expect results soon. The more time we give her, the higher the chances we never track her down."

* * *

Lisa frowned as Coil hung up, before going over to her computer to begin her own research.  
  
She realized with some irritation that the PRT seemed to be doubling down on their security in light of the recent breach, making her take longer to hack her way in and go over what they had. The dossier did give her some stuff to work with, but looking through the spaces where [Taylor Hebert] should have been told her a lot more.  
  
Whatever her power did, it wasn't all-powerful. She had erased all direct references, but it had left a kind of hole. Forms and IDs and footage and paperwork, none of it existed in a vacuum.  
  
Rebuilding what had been lost was difficult, and some information  _was_  plain gone, but by simply following the numbers 1,2,3,5, she would know that Taylor would have been 4. From that principle, she began to put her power to work, and at least confirmed that the Stranger was "Taylor Hebert" and that the identiy wasn't a mere fabrication to get close to Shadow Stalker and out her.  
  
That, of course, implied that she _mind-wiped her own Dad_.  
  
Well...  
  
It wasn't like  _any_  of the Undersiders had good track records with their parents. She wasn't one to judge. And so she wouldn't. Based on that, it seems that Shadow Stalker's own account of the sitatuation was the real one- there had been a prank, Taylor was put in a locker, Taylor broke out, fought her, and Shadow Stalker outed herself in the process. Perhaps accidently- no. Lisa decided, Taylor had planned it, but it had been something hasty and without much preparation.  
  
Now that she knew more about her, she began to furiously look over maps and try to consider where Taylor might go to hide, trying out different understandings of the girls' psychology.  
  
"Hey, Lisa." Alec said.  
  
"Go away, I'm busy." she muttered, feeling her headache pounding in the back of her brain.  
  
"But I'm boooored." he moaned, draping himself across her. "Come play video games."  
  
"You hate playing video games with me."  
  
"Well, Brian's not here, and I figure I should try and squeeze some entertainment out of teaching you how to use the controls."  
  
"Try Bitch, then."  
  
"She's not here." Alec said, "She left hours ago, didn't you notice?"  
  
"I'm busy! Besides, this is something for the boss, you know, the one who gives us our missions and our  _pay."_ she poked him, "So, if you still want to keep your lavish lifestyle, why don't you leave me to do some real work."  
  
"Fine, fine, don't get your panties in a bunch." he said.

* * *

"Let her go." Bitch growls.  
  
Taylor watches, with interest, the way Bitch moves. The 'her' the girl was referring to was a stray puppy that Taylor had been following on a whim while she turned her thoughts over.  
  
She had been debating over which group or people to target first in her destruction of the various elites of the world, but for the forseeable future, she was on the streets. So she had been following the stray to watch how it lived. No home, no family, no support- this puppy would have been the start of her education in self-imposed homelessness.  
  
That is, until she found who she was sure would be her  _new_  mentor.  
  
The girl in front of her wasn't filthy, but it was clear her clothes were well-worn, chosen for their durability and for how easily they could be cleaned. She smelled like dogs and alley-ways... but more than anything, Taylor knew she was looking at another loser at life. Almost Shadow Stalker in reverse.  
  
Her mind wasn't shaped the same as other humans. When she looked at Taylor, she just saw a bipedal animal, one who might be a threat, one who might turn on her inexplicably. A thing who will act in ways she can't understand, and can't predict. Who, based on experience, only tried to manipulate her. Her only friends were dogs, the only living things she could depend on. She would never get support from humanity, she had never had friends, had never won in her life.  
  
Taylor smiled, grinning very close to genuinely, as she walked up to Bitch, "You're just like me!"  
  
Bitch took a few sudden steps back, her dogs converging on her as they snarled, "Angelica, hurt!" Bitch ordered, pointing.  
  
The dog, which was quickly growing in size, tackled her to the ground, jaws sinking into her shoulder. The pain was terrible as the dog grew larger and larger.  
  
And then the dog was regular-size again, and Taylor was fine. The dog looked genuinely confused, looking back to Bitch, before the girl decided to try again, pointing at Taylor. "Hurt!" Bitch said.  
  
"This is Angelica?" she asked before the dog jumped up, growing once more, this time joined by two others as they wrestled her to the ground, "What a sweet girl! Wouldn't harm a fly." And then she was standing up, all the dogs free of mutation a second time over. "What happened to her eye and ear?"

* * *

Already, Bitch was feeling off-center. Her dogs, less equipped to handle reality-warping mentally than she was, were feeling confused. They had been told to attack, they attacked, and then suddenly they weren't attacking. Their target hadn't slipped away or broken through, she was just there, but they suddenly weren't attacking any more, and nothing in their dog minds could offer a workable explanation. They looked to Bitch for guidance, and Bitch stared at her opponent. "Come here. Here." the two more experienced, Judas and Brutus, pulled away, but Angelica hesitated, still in training, and tried to bite down on her enemy again.  
  
"Oh. I suppose there was nothing wrong to begin with." the enemy Parahuman shrugged off the attack, same as before, revealing no injury- which was impossible. Bitch  _saw_  blood. It had just gone somewhere.  
  
"Angelica." the dog turned towards her. "Here." Bitch repeated, harsher. Her last dog rushed back to her, and Bitch began to channel her power into all three- because even if the enemy could make them go back to normal, somehow, Bitch didn't have many options. If her dogs got big enough, she would win, eventually, or she would have to run away. And she didn't want to run away from someone so small.  
  
But as they grew once more, she noticed something off about Angelica. Stopping the process, she took Angelica's side, patting her to make her turn her head, and Bitch stared at something that shouldn't have been there. Namely, an eye and an ear. Ones that had been lost to Angelica's former monster of an owner. (Bitch had been sure to repay the favor.)  
  
They were back. And they didn't look freshly regenerated or anything like she had seen another Parahuman pull off. Everything around the eye looked as it should, with no sign of the scar tissue that had resulted when the terrier first lost it. The ear, similarly, had no obvious line where new flesh began.  
  
"What..." she began, "You healed my dog?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
Bitch began to get angry. This girl had no reason for doing any of this, saying any of this, no reason to have been stalking the stray but to hurt it or try to adopt it- and Bitch could just tell that this girl had no idea what to  _do_  with dogs, or she wouldn't have been leering over the puppy to  _begin_  with, she would have been  _carrying_  it. Bitch has her dogs attack over and over, and nothing worked, and now she was  _helping_  her?  
  
"No, no, it's fine." the toothy expression slid away, the face becoming utterly passive, but at least not confusing or aggressive. She leaned back, away from the others, "Don't worry. You see, no one knows what I'm thinking either. So let's be friends."  
  
Bitch stared at her, "Friends?"  
  
"Sure. We're both trash that no one wanted to help. So let's be friends."  
  
"I'm not trash."  
  
"You're a stray, like they used to be. You don't think like everyone else. They keep trying to punish you back into being human, but that won't ever work. Because you don't think like they do. They don't treat you right, and then when you snap back they get mad and it's stupid, but they won't change. It's not your fault, you didn't do anything." she held out her hand.  
  
Bitch looked at it, and frowned when Angelica gave it a sniff, before looking at Bitch, wondering what to do.  
  
"Come on. I'm a stray too. Take me in, please?" despite the wording, her expression and tone didn't change much.  
  
"Will you heal my dogs? All of the ones who are hurt?"  
  
"I could do that."  
  
"...Fine." Bitch said, "But this doesn't make me your friend or anything." picking up the puppy, she grunted for her dogs to follow her, and tried to keep her eyes focused ahead, away from the weirdo girl who fell into step behind them.

* * *

Bitch had to say, while she didn't exactly feel  _comfortable_  around the girl, she did acknowledge that the sight of all the dogs being free of injury, scar, blemish or amputation did something to her she hadn't felt in a long time.  
  
Normally, she'd utterly hate people like the weirdo. It was obvious she didn't have a damn idea about how to treat a dog. She didn't do anything right. She didn't try to assert dominance, she let them bite her or growl at her and simply ignored it, which you  _didn't_  do, not if you wanted them to stop. She wasn't yelling at them, which was good, but she wasn't even trying to make them listen either.  
  
She supposed that the girl was just healing herself, constantly, or something. Bitch had tried to figure out how others thought before, why everyone could be so  _stupid-_  or why they all thought  _she_  was stupid. Maybe the girl was right. Maybe it was impossible for them to understand. For her to understand.  
  
 _You're just like me!_  
  
Bitch wasn't. She really wasn't. But maybe she was more than anyone else. "Damn it." she muttered, before going up to the girl, and shoving a dog off of her. "No. No biting. Enough." she commanded. Not shouting, simply telling. All a shout was was an incitement to aggression. She looked at the girl, "Look, you might be able to heal anything they do, but if you let them walk all over you, they won't  _learn."_  
  
The girl shouldn't look so damn  _interested._  "I need them to respect you, or you're not gonna be any help at all." Bitch continued.  
  
"Okay." she said, "So what should I do? I think you'll kick my ass if I hurt them, even if I heal it back after."  
  
"You bet I will." Bitch snarled, "You can't teach a dog anything by  _beating_  it. All you have to do is not back down, show you're stronger." the girl hadn't exactly been  _flinching,_  but freezing was almost as bad, "Let me show you." looking at one of the bigger dogs who was tussling a little too roughly with another, she stomped over, "Stop." she said firmly, getting the dog's attention.  
  
Taylor watched, and made sure to do the same thing the next time any of the dogs tried biting or shoving her. When Bitch gave a small nod, Taylor almost grinned. Two losers, now, against the world.


	3. Undersiders 1.3

"So, these people are your friends?"  
  
"Something like that."  
  
"You're allowed to say that word you know. It won't hurt you."  
  
"You said  _you_  didn't have any friends." Bitch muttered, "They're people I  _work_  with. Tattletale tries to manipulate me all the time, Regent is just annoying, and Grue made himself the boss cause' he's stronger than me."  
  
"What's the issue with the first one?"  
  
"He makes himself the boss but then he keeps running away from everything." she mutters, "Like, even when we can win. When we  _know_  we can win, we still run away. And then I challenge him, and he shoves me down again. It doesn't make sense."  
  
"...Hm."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm just trying to think of a way to explain it to you."  
  
Bitch frowned, looking away. She knew, by now, that when Taylor said something like that, she wasn't doing it because Bitch was stupid. Taylor had said it herself, over and over, really, that Bitch was different. Others couldn't understand her, and she didn't understand others, not without a lot of effort. And since there were may more 'others' than there were 'Bitch' it's up to the others to figure out a way.  
  
That they haven't yet is just a sign of the world letting her down.  
  
"Okay. So, when you and your coworkers go out and rob a place, and a superhero shows up, you want to fight them."  
  
"Well, yeah." she said.  
  
"Because you're protecting the stuff you took. And the only way the heroes and PRT and other villains are going to stop going after that stuff, is if you're stronger than they are, right? When two dogs want the same toy, the bigger dog is usually the one who gets it. And you know you're likely going to have the bigger dog."  
  
Bitch nods along.  
  
"Well, usually your opponents, they don't want the toy. They want you. You took the toy, and that's what got their attention, but they're not testing you to see who deserves the toy more, they see you, and they attack on sight. And usually, they're not alone, while the Undersiders are. They're just the first of many dogs." Bitch narrows her eyes, "Okay... so, the Undersiders are a dog. All of you, one dog. With me?"  
  
"What, you're trying again?"  
  
"Yeah, sorry."  
  
"Fine. Okay, we're one dog."  
  
"The Undersiders are one dog. A big dog. A tough dog. And you decide you want a toy. So you go into another dog's territory because you want the toy. Now, that territory has one dog nearby, and he sees you grab the toy. Now, if that dog were alone, the Undersiders could fight, win, take the toy and nothing more would happen. But that dog who was guarding it has his own pack. The police have the Protectorate, and the Wards, and the PRT. That's four dogs, and two of those are just as big or bigger than the Undersiders."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"So, what does that dog do? It wants the toy, but it knows that if it hurts the dog who has it, it'll just call down the rest of the pack, but if the Undersiders grab the toy, and escape with it, then the rest of the dog's pack would just think, 'oh, the guard lost the toy'."  
  
"But- the Empire are just one group, and so are the ABB, and he makes us run from them too."  
  
"The ABB... they only have three Capes, right? But Lung is probably the toughest single Parahuman in the Bay right now. You're the only one in the Undersiders who can even maybe fight him, but it would probably hurt a lot. And Lung, he heals-"  
  
"Like you."  
  
"-like me. Even if you kill him, it won't stick. It's possible that no one can beat him on their own."  
  
"Not even you?"  
  
 _"Well..."_  Taylor says, "Maybe. But as for the Empire, it's simply a way, way bigger dog than the Undersiders. They have more Parahumans than the local  _Protectorate._  That's why Grue doesn't fight them."  
  
"...Fine."  
  
"But, of course, all that is different now that you have me." she said.  
  
"Because you can heal us."  
  
"Yep."  
  
The two girls, and three dogs, came to a stop in front of an otherwise inconspicuous building. Bitch walked up the steps and opened the door, and Taylor followed afterwards.  
  
"Oh, hey, Bitch, haven't seen you for a few days." the person who Taylor assumed was Regent said from his place on the couch, "And-" he stopped when he noticed Taylor, "You brought a friend."  
  
"Yep." she said, a small grin on her face, her face utterly passive, "So, you're the Undersiders, huh? Are you Regent?"  
  
At that, Regent began laughing, "Hah! Oh, Grue is going to be pissed. This is supposed to be a  _secret_  hideout, you know, Bitch?"  
  
"Shut up. Where is he?"  
  
"Grue? Not here at the moment." Regent turned his amused glance at Taylor, "Our leader doesn't actually live here with the rest of us, he has family members, or something."  
  
"So, where's Tattletale?" Taylor asked, walking into the building, in front of the television, to Regent's annoyance, before stopping to look at the other doors.  
  
"That one's hers."  
  
"She is here, though, right Regent?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah. Go have fun."  
  
"He doesn't seem to mind that I might blow the whistle on their hideout." Taylor said.  
  
Bitch shrugged, "Regent doesn't seem to actually  _care_  about anything."  
  
"Interesting!" Taylor said happily, before knocking on Tattletale's door.  
  
"I told you I'm bus-" Tattletale voice shouted from behind the door, before she stopped. Then there was a thud, and some scrambling to get up, and then the door opened and Tattletale was staring at her. "You! You're Goner! How did you find me, no, you didn't , you weren't even looking, Bitch found you and then, you made her trust you?" she looked between them, "Oh, wow. She really does. And you- you're looking for... outcasts?"  
  
"Something like that." she said, "Regent might be one, but he's good at masking it. You could be as well, but you're doing pretty well for yourself, aren't you?"  
  
"Look, I'm not sure if I'm what you want, but-" she considered it, "Damn it, I need to call Grue. Hey, you wouldn't by any chance be interested in joining the Undersiders, would you?"  
  
"Oh? What a profound idea. I hadn't even considered that. How nice of you to offer. All I had to do was actually show up in your base with a person who asked me the same thing." she said in monotone, "Sure, I'll join. You're Bitch's friends, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"No." Bitch said, "But they're okay, I guess. Dog food costs money, after all."  
  
"Well that's... that's good." Tattletale said, "Well, I need to make a few phone calls. Welcome to the team, Goner."  
  
"Wait, you said that earlier too. Goner?"  
  
"It's what the PRT has been calling you." she said, "If you have a different name you'd like us to use then-"  
  
"No, no, it's fine." Taylor said, smiling, "It fits."

* * *

"What do you mean she found you?"  
  
"She found Bitch, more like." Tattletale said, "Bitch met her, didn't even know I was looking for her. Now, they're friends, and Bitch was the one to invite her to the team."  
  
"Did she mess with her memory?"  
  
"Not in any way I could tell." Tattletale said, "That doesn't mean that there's nothing- it might explain how she got Bitch to trust her over such a short time."  
  
Coil considered the words, and opened a second Timeline.

* * *

**Timeline A**   
_"I'm going to send someone to fetch her. Inform her that she needs to be vetted by me before she can join."_

* * *

**Timeline B**  
"Very well. Observe her, I want you to give me a properly updated dossier of her abilities and personality before the end of the day."

* * *

**Timeline A**   
_Hanging up the phone, Coil moved on to contact specific members of his mercenaries. It was standard fare, when he was bringing in a new Parahuman. In one timeline, he investigated them with 'normal' means, and in the other, he brought them into the heart of his base and tortured them in order to verify the same information.  
  
They would stop by the Undersider base, and pick her up. And in the other, Tattletale would keep her talking, and gather everything she could with her powers.   
  
Soon enough, his men were on their way, and Coil laid back and considered what options he would put the girl through first. There was always the simple option to point a gun at her head, but Mr. Pitter had informed him the other day of a new cocktail of drugs that would suit his purposes. Things to make Goner pliable, things to make her tell the truth, and things to make her want more.   
  
Smiling, he decided that this timeline was almost certainly expendable, and that if Goner was already friends with the least-stable member of the group, but was sane enough to put up a convincing facade of innocence throughout M/S protocols at the PRT building, then she would be well-suited to the Undersiders.   
  
And, of course, if this Timeline was expendable, it meant he would be able to do a little stress relief without making any issues._

* * *

_"So, these people work for our mysterious boss?" Regent asked.  
  
"Why did she have to meet the boss, while none of us had to?" Bitch asked.   
  
"Look, it's complicated. Goner here is already known to the PRT, and she's a powerful Stranger." Lisa said, "So of course she has to go through a little bit more vetting than most. You understand, right Goner?"  
  
"Sure, I'd like to meet him." she said.  
  
"Oh?" Alec asked, "You're a Stranger huh, what can you do?"  
  
"She can mess with memories, and with electronic data." Lisa said before Goner could open her mouth, smirking, "Oh, and by the way, I've already worked out some tests for myself to make sure I can tell if my mind has been messed with. Not because of you, but just in principle. It's a weird world we live in, after all."  
  
Bitch looked confused at that, something that Lisa filed away for later.   
  
"Damn." Goner said, not sounding disappointed, simply speaking in a dull slightly pleased tone, "And here I thought I could be mysterious for a little bit longer. The PRT know about me?"  
  
"Uh, yeah. Armsmaster's suit records what happens around it, whatever you did to their servers, it didn't affect his armor."  
  
"Huh." Lisa grinned wide at the first bit of genuine surprise she managed to eke out of the girl.  
  
"The Boss is waiting." the mercenary said.   
  
"Don't worry, don't worry." Goner said with a dull grin, "Don't worry Bitch, I'll be fine. See you all soon- hopefully as a member of the group!"_

* * *

**Timeline B**  
"So, this is Goner, everyone." Lisa said, "The Boss already approved her joining the group."  
  
"Hello." Goner said, "Nice to meet you all. My real name is Taylor Hebert, something that Tattletale and Bitch both already know. I don't have a costume, my name was picked out by the PRT, and Bitch is my best friend."  
  
"Bitch has friends?" Alec said, only to get himself a punch in the arm from Brian, who had hurried over once Lisa called him.  
  
"Welcome to the Undersiders, Tayler." Brian said, extending his hand, "My name is Grue, but you can call me Brian."  
  
"Tattletale, but out of costume, I'm Lisa."  
  
"Regent. Ow."  
  
"His name's Alec out of costume." Brian supplied. "So, what can you do?"  
  
"Do?"  
  
"Yeah, Bitch can make dogs into giant monsters, Lisa's the ultimate know-it-all, Grue makes darkness, and I'm devastatingly handsome." Brian raised his fist again, "And I can  _also_  control other people's bodies, just a little bit. Enough to make them twitch or cramp or trip."  
  
"She's a healer." Bitch said, "She healed all my dogs. Even really old scars."  
  
"Wait, a healer?" Brian asked, whistling, "That's pretty rare, useful too."  
  
"Wait, what?" Lisa asked, surprised, "No she isn't, she's a Stranger." she turned towards Goner, "You erased your electronic presence from PRT and city servers, and you manipulated people's memories."  
  
Brian looked between Bitch and Tattletale, before finally looking at Goner, "So, which is it?"  
  
Goner simply smiled a little wider, "Actually, I create screws." she held her hand open, and a large steel screw about a foot long and four inches across appeared in her hand.  
  
Alec started laughing as Bitch and Tattletale both started talking at once, both claiming otherwise despite the physical evidence in her hand, while Brian looked on confused.

* * *

**Timeline A**   
_"So, who's this mysterious Boss?"  
  
No answer was forthcoming from the four mercenaries sitting in the back of the truck with her, "You'll meet him soon enough." one said.  
  
She looked between them, and at the wall separating her from the driver.   
  
"Is he... Kaiser?"   
  
"Wha- no."   
  
"But all the Undersiders were white. It might be."  
  
"Grue isn't white." one of the mercenaries said, before she caught herself.   
  
"Oh. My bad." Taylor put a finger to her chin, "Oh! I know, the Boss is Uber."   
  
"What?"  
  
"No."  
  
"You think we'd work for Uber and fucking Leet?"  
  
Taylor shrugged, "None of the Undersiders were Asian. Do we work for Faultline?"  
  
"We don't work for-"  
  
"Do we work for Coil?"  
  
All of them carefully kept themselves from startling, and then one said "Fine. Fine, we work for Coil. You'll see him in a few minutes anyway. Now keep quiet."   
  
"Okay."  
  
The car rumbled on, until it reached an underground parking lot with a connection to Coil's base. the mercenaries put a bag over her head, and then lead her to a secret entrance, and lead her through a meandering path to Coil's base. It was only once they brought her to a specialized room that the bag was removed.   
  
"Hello." Coil said.   
  
"Hello." Taylor replied. _

* * *

**Timeline B**  
"Sorry, I'm teasing you all." she threw the screw, and it pierced Alec's TV, making the screen go black and shatter in an instant as it fell over.  
  
"What the fuck!" Alec cried, angrily, and the others stepped back as well, Bitch just as surprised.  
  
"See, my power is actually a pretty simple concept." she said, creating another screw, "I can make things that weren't real, such as this," she tossed it into the air and caught it, "and make it real. And I can make things that were real, like the 'fact' that I broke the TV, not real." all at once, the TV was back where it was before, no damage on it, "I made it so that the scars on Bitch's dogs weren't real." she said, gesturing to Bitch, "And I made it so that any information about myself that I could think of wouldn't exist."  
  
"So, you're just a really powerful Shaker, rather than some kind of grab-bag." Lisa said, mentally adding it to the dossier she would make for Coil later.  
  
"Something like that." she said, "Oh, I should put the offer on the table now. Anyone have any injuries or memories that are bothering them?"  
  
"Wait- memories?" Alec asked.  
  
Taylor smiled, "Sure. The way I see it, there's no real difference between mental wounds and physical wounds."  
  
The Undersiders looked between each other, before Brian spoke up first, "I'm good."  
  
"Me too." Lisa added.  
  
"Yeah." Bitch said.  
  
"..." Alec considered it. Lisa knew that he had gone through a lot, before they met. She could understand him thinking of erasing it. "Can you clear up this bruise Brian gave me?" or maybe he wasn't.  
  
"Sure."

* * *

**Timeline A**   
_"Tell me about yourself. What your powers can do."  
  
"Well, my life has been a pretty normal one." she said, "I've had my power for as long as I can remember, but until that fateful night, I never had reason to unleash it in full-" BZZZZZTT "-What was that?"  
  
"Lie detector." he answered simply.  
  
"Hmm. Can I begin again?"  
  
"Please do. But I think you should know I'm not someone you can play with, miss Hebert."   
  
"It's pronounced Her-bear actually-" BZZZT "Anyway, I think I first got my power when I was trapped by a group of ABB-" BZZZT "I-" BZZZZT "Ah, I didn't even get to do anything that time."  
  
Coil smiled, "Well, it seems you are incapable of learning." he pressed a button, and Mister Pitter entered the room, a large syringe in hand, "Luckily, we have the means on hand to make you more willing to divulge information, and a little something extra to keep you honest."   
  
"You'll need more than a little." she looked at the buzzer, smirking when it didn't go off. "Ha."   
  
Pitter injected the cocktail, and Coil watched, irritated, as the girl showed no reaction. "So, tell me, what is the nature of your power? It is only memory manipulation, combined with a skill for hacking? Or is the data manipulation part of it as well."  
  
"Well, actually, my Dad is just a really good actor, and I don't have powers at all. We're both playing the long con, eventually, he'll rule this city with me at his side." Coil glanced at the buzzer. That... that couldn't possibly be right.   
  
"Pitter, are you sure that there's nothing in there that would dull her reactions?"  
  
"No, sir. The cocktail is exactly as I described it."   
  
"...Fine then, your father. He's the Parahuman? That would explain why you don't appear as a Parahuman on your MRI."   
  
"No, he doesn't have powers either. He's just the one in charge."  
  
"Then how did you have your information erased from every file but Armsmaster's own armor?"  
  
"The real question you should ask is why Armsmaster forgot to erase the data in his own armor when he managed to get everything else." she waggled her eyebrows conspiratorially.  
  
Coil narrowed his eyes, and then turned towards the lie detector, pulling the cover off and staring, perplexed, at the empty box. "...What?"  
  
The girl was standing up. When did that happen? Where were her restraints. "Guards-" he began, only to choke as something hard jabbed into his neck, tearing through it. A sudden searing pain in his hands told him that he had just been crucified to the nearest wall. Turning his head told him that Pitter was the same. Giant-size screws were sticking from his arms, and blood was already spilling down the wall.   
  
Coil gasped, and the Timeline shut down of its own regard. _

* * *

**Timeline B**  
Coil jolted in place, fumbling for the phone. Whatever she was, she wasn't a Stranger, he had to tell Tattletale-  
  
All at once, a burning headache appeared, as the other timeline forcibly re-opened itself.

* * *

 **Timeline A**  
 _He was free, and alive, again.  
  
Was it- was it an illusion? Her Stranger power? Had she made him simply think he had died? She- she was back in the chair. Pitter was on the floor, crying, but also unharmed. The syringe was empty. He quickly strode over to her, and ripped open the lie-detector, it was still empty, was this_ still _an illusion?_  
  
"Don't worry."  
  
 _He looked at her, staring, noticing once again that her hands were free. "You- what are you doing? How did you-" no, no need to bother. She wouldn't be a problem any longer. He closed down the Timeline._

* * *

 **Timeline B**  
Coil breathed a sigh of relief, and went to his computer, keeping his hand pressed to his head, he had heard, of course, of Thinker headaches, but never had he experienced one before.  
  
It was irritating, to be sure. He almost felt a twinge of sympathy for Tattletale.  
  
Well at least it wouldn't happen again as long as he stayed away from that girl-

* * *

**Timeline A**   
_"What the-"  
  
"Interesting." the girl said, "You just committed suicide."  
  
No he hadn't, he just- he had just tried to-  
  
"Don't worry. I won't let you die on me. But I'd advise you stopped using your power."   
  
Damn it! No. He closed. Down. The. Timeline!_

* * *

**Timeline B**  
"Fuck!" his pulse was pounding. This couldn't be happening- occam's razor said that the simplest answer was almost always the right one. His power was simple pre-cognition. His power predicted the future, and chose the best option for himself, and then simulated in real-time both simulations. In the end, the one that he was always going to choose was the 'real' world.  
  
That had been what he thought was true, but if that  _was_  true, then  _this_  shouldn't be able to happen-

* * *

 **Timeline A**  
 _"Whoah there, Coil." she said, "Stop that, really. It's kind of gross to watch."  
  
"W-watch? Why am I back here? What are you doing to my power?"  
  
"It keeps killing you." she said, "So I brought you back."  
  
So then he_ really was _making a parallel universe every time he used his power. A chill ran down his spine as he imagined how many universes there existed where he apparently dropped dead without reason.  
  
But he wouldn't let that stop him. He was Coil, he lived only his_ best _life. Even if that mean killing himself off a thousand times, he would come up on top!  
  
He shut it down._

* * *

_He tried again._

* * *

_He tried again!_

* * *

_"Stop bringing me back!"  
  
"Why? If I can stop you from dying, and you kill yourself, won't I be assisting a suicide?"  
  
"I'm not_ really _dying!" he growled, "I'll be fine! This is how my power works, in one world, I had you kidnapped, in the other, I didn't. I decided that I want to live in the world where I didn't kidnap you, so I went back! If that kills my body in this universe, then so be it!"  
  
"I'm not just going to stand by and let you-" he shot her. Her body slumped over. He counted. 1, 2, 3... 9, 10, she got back up. He shot her again.   
  
"DAMN IT!" he ran for his desk, and vaulted over it, turning on his computer and quickly entering in the sequence for the self-destruct of his entire base.  
  
She stood up, about ten seconds later, and he shot her again. He accelerated the timer on the self-destruct. When she got up, he shot her multiple more times. Then, he ended the timeline.   
  
And as such, his body slumped over as well, his power burning up the unwanted alternate version of himself's brain.   
  
Pitter began to panic as he ran for the entrance, only for the girl to get back up.   
  
She walked around the desk, and frowned at the computer. "...You're that determined huh." she shook her head, "Fine. You win." she waved her hand, and the window for the self-destruct switch stopped counting down, vanishing.  
  
She looked at Pitter, "Sorry about your Boss. If he's going to keep going like this, I'm going to get bored of reviving him before he gets bored of dying. Can you get someone to drive me back to the Undersider's hideout?"_

* * *

 **Timeline B**  
  
Coil waited, with bated breath.  
  
Tentatively, he opened a new timeline, only for a second.  
  
It worked.  
  
He won.  
  
Breathing out a sigh of relief, he sunk into his seat. From this moment on, he was staying the hell away from her. But still, that didn't mean he couldn't  _use_  her. If anything, it just meant he had found a very useful asset... as long as Tattletale can control her. Speaking of... she seemed to have finished her dossier.

> "Goner"  
> Real name: Taylor Hebert  
> Powers: Powerful and abstract Shaker power, also qualifying as a Blaster and Stranger. Self-described as the ability to make things as if they haven't happened, as well as being able to create things from her imagination. Her powers are not Manton-limited, being able to freely affect organic and inorganic targets.  
>   
> Her erasure ability has been implemented to erase injuries, even scars, erase (specific) memories, erase records both physical and digital, undo damage to inanimate objects, and to self-heal.  
>   
> Her use of imagination-creation usually takes on the form of a large metal screw, which she is able to use as a weapon, usually thrown.  
>   
> Personality: Enjoys using misdirection, refers to it as teasing, and falls back on it when caught off-guard. Her emotions seem to be muted, possibly as a result of her power altering her brain. She shows a degree of protectiveness over people she considers outcasts, such as herself, Bitch, and her father. Her erasing her father's memories of her seem to have been done in hope of protecting him from the emotional burden of her Trigger circumstances, and her outing of Shadow Stalker and interference with the PRT. Similarly, she seems to hate people who are successful without effort.  
>   
> Notes: Her power seems to have a very broad range of effect, and she doesn't need physical proximity in order to erase things. However, it does seem to be mental-image based. If she doesn't have a good idea of where and what the thing she wants to erase is, she can't affect it.

He mentally added the ability to revive the dead to her list of capabilities, as well as self-revivification, and then went ahead and designed a message to be released in the case of his death to a number of potentially loyal subordinates that he would give them, and Goner, a significant amount of money if they convince her to revive him.  
  
That done, he began to busy himself with other things, trying to push the terrifying time where his power had been turned against him from his head.


	4. Undersiders 1.4

"Goner, we have to hurry." Tattletale shouted, "Come on! We already have everything we can carry."  
  
"Just a second." She said, looking at the safe, "So, we're just leaving all of this?"  
  
"Well, we can't exactly carry all of it!"  
  
"Come on!" Grue roared, pulling the trolley loaded up with stolen cash towards the elevator.  
  
Taylor looked back at the money that remained, and decided that it wasn't real. Lisa stared at the safe empty of every single cent, all that was left of the Ruby Dream Casino's money was being wheeled out by them.  
  
Taylor walked back towards the trolley, and then began helping to push it, Lisa joining a second later.  
  
"What were you two doing?" Brian grunted as he pushed.  
  
"Goner left one hell of a devastating calling card."

* * *

"They took...  _all_  of it?" Battery asked. As one of the local speedsters on patrol, she had been directed towards the casino to see if she could catch up to the Undersiders, but by the time she arrived, the trail had gone dead. More than dead. The normal signs of an Undersider retreat- namely massive claw marks scored into streets and buildings, just weren't there.  
  
Something else that wasn't there was money. The safe was empty. Absolutely empty. There might have been an actual ton of money in there, and the Undersiders had gotten away with every last cent of it. It shouldn't have been possible, but there it was.  
  
"All of it." the PRT man said, "We can't make heads or tails of it either. The best explanations are that there was some kind of Mover abilitiy that they used to move the money they didn't carry."  
  
"What about the cameras?" Battery asked.   
  
"The moment the door opened to let the Undersiders in, they cameras went black. Color and sound returned the moment they left. We're assuming Grue's darkness."  
  
"No, I've seen his darkness, it spreads gradually." she said.  
  
"Then, who else? Tattletale? Hacking?"  
  
"Maybe. Though I've heard her suspected specialty is cold-reading people, or possibly even mind-reading. Hacking seems a little outside her purview." Battery frowned, "I don't like having this many loose ends." But if they were gone, they were gone. As it was, the Protectorate had bigger priorities than tracking down and making a raid on a group of teenagers. Especially the way the ABB was prowling around the area even now. 

* * *

"This was an  _insult."_  Lung growled, his lieutenants wisely remaining silent. Oni Lee and Bakuda were sitting in their own positions in the wings of the room, just as quiet as the unpowered lieutenants. Lung snarls, and everyone in the room flinched as his grip squeezed the steel table, leaving imprints under his fingers. "Those damn children think they can  _take_  what Lung has  _claimed?"_  
  
"...It wasn't widely known you were targeting the Ruby Dreams Casino." one of the unpowered lieutenants offered, "I don't think this was meant to hurt us, the Undersiders would have known better than trying to take what is the ABB's."  
  
"I don't care what they meant to do! They emptied it! We told the Nazis, we told Coil, no one touches the goddamn Casino!"   
  
"We didn't tell-"  
  
Lung slammed his hand on the table, and looked up, to see which of them had been speaking out against him, but they all averted their eyes. He breathed out, letting it go. "...I want them dead. This city has too many villains without them making a menace of themselves as well." he turns to Oni Lee, "Find them. Once you have a location, keep them busy. I want a couple dozen of our people with guns. I'll handle the dogs, they kill everyone else."   
  
"Yes sir." 

* * *

Oni Lee watched as the group bounded over the rooftops on the back of the giant dogs. He recognized the all-black form of Grue, the lilac skintight costume of Tattletale, the flowy white outfit of Regent, and the simplistic affair of a jacket and dog mask for Bitch.  
  
His eyes lingered on the last member however. She had a basic costume. Black pants, black jacket, black domino mask. She had long curly hair, and was a thin girl. He didn't recognize her. He allowed himself a small grin. She must have joined just a little while ago. How unfortunate for her, joining the group just as Lung declared that it would be destroyed.   
  
Teleporting closer, he pulled out a pistol, and Tattletale screamed out "Regent!" before he could even get a shot off. The teen kicked the dog he was riding, urging it to increase in speed, letting him dodge Oni Lee's shot. Frowning, he pulled a pin from his grenade, before teleporting away. From his new vantage point, he tossed the grenade in his hand, and watched with satisfaction as his clone leaped for one of the dogs, throwing his own grenade. The clone's grenade went off first, and then the clone disintegrated, and then the real grenade went off on the other side.   
  
With explosions on both sides, the dogs were forced to run forward, towards the docks. Towards Lung's ambush.  
  
He teleported to another nearby roof, and began taking pot-shots. He could have simply murdered them all if he devoted himself to it, but Lung felt that this was a personal matter, and wouldn't appreciate not getting to fight  _at all_ , so Oni Lee didn't put too much effort into it. As long as they kept along the path to the ambush, that would be enough.   
  
Then, his eyes widened as he saw another person on the opposite roof, with a gun. Another new member? Raising his pistol, he fired once at the other person, only for them to-  _crumble to ash?_  
  
Another new Undersider? A Trump? The costume even looked the same as his own.   
  
Another one appeared, right next to him! And there was another on the roof. Oni Lee drew his knife, and leaped for the copycat, who in return pulled out his own knife.   
  
Then, both teleported away, letting their clones get gunned down by yet another doppelganger. A fourth. The second was still just watching, gun at the ready, dividing his attention between the Undersiders and himself.   
  
Oni Lee remembered, belatedly, that the Undersiders were still an issue. He would deal with the copycat himself, but only after he steered the teens to their deaths. He teleported away, and his clone self-destructed with a pulled grendade pin.   
  
He teleported next to the Undersiders, and tossed a flashbang, spooking the dogs into taking the corner he wanted them to. Then he teleported off again, glancing back, only to see that nearly a dozen doppelgangers were chasing him!

* * *

"Goner what the FUCK did you  _do!?"_  Grue demanded. He and Tattletale were on Judas, Alec was on Brutus with Taylor, and Bitch was alone on Angelica.  
  
"Hahahaha!" Regent belted, barely able to hang onto his ride, "Oh god, they're trying to kill each other!" he said, deeply and utterly amused.   
  
"I reversed their collapse into ash. I thought maybe it would drag him back from where he teleported." she said, passively, "This is a really weird outcome though.  _All_  of them are the real Oni Lee, now."   
  
"Well fucking  _stop_  it!" Brian begged, "The ABB were bad enough with  _one_  Oni Lee!"   
  
"No. Never stop." Alec said.   
  
"I don't care." Bitch said, "They're spending more time fighting each other than they are hurting us, so it's okay, right?"  
  
"Surprisingly, yeah." Tattletale said, watching the utter chaos unfolding behind them. Grenades kept going off, flashbangs, pistol shots. The cacophony of nearly... twenty six, heavily armed teleporters fighting each other, was overwhelming, "Oni Lee thinks that the others are Trumps, and self-replicators, copying him. He thinks they're a bigger threat to the ABB than we are."  
  
"Which one thinks that?" Brian asked.  
  
"All of them! They all think it." she grimaces, turning to Taylor, "But please, please stop it. Some of them are going to survive, and make peace with each other, sooner or later. Then the ABB will be massively more powerful. They were a force in the city with only only  _two_  active Capes. The more Oni Lees there are, the more trouble they'll make."   
  
"We can take care of them later." Bitch said.   
  
"Take care of- how?" Brian asked.   
  
"Kill em'."   
  
"Bitch, I don't like killing people." Taylor said, "I prefer making people miserable."   
  
"They're not real people." Bitch said, "They're clones."   
  
"They're real  _now."_  
  
"Your powers are terrifying." Brian murmured, mostly under his breath, "Okay, we'll ignore it for now. We need to get out of here-"  
  
"Shit!" Lisa said suddenly, "We aren't escaping!"  
  
"Of course we're escaping-"  
  
"No, we were running from Oni Lee, but Oni Lee wasn't just chasing, he was herding-" she glared at the buildings around her, "-we're in ABB territory. Fuck."  
  
"If we turn around, we'll eventually run back into Oni Lee." Brian said.   
  
"We can take him." Bitch said, "We can take all of them. Goner can heal us, remember?"  
  
"Even Goner can't bring us back from the dead." Brian said.  
  
 _"Well..._ " every Undersider but Bitch turned towards her, staring.   
  
"...I feel cheated." Regent said. The first to recover, "Talk about winning the superpower lottery, all I do is make people twitch, and Miss Monotone here gets to play god."  
  
Lisa looked downright terrified, "Okay, Goner, please, please promise me you won't spread that around. If you do start telling people, you will  _absolutely_  get kidnapped and forced to revive people."   
  
"The only people I've told are you."  
  
Grue sighed, "I can't fucking deal with this right now... Then, what, we just turn around and wade through it? We take the damage, and move on, have Goner heal us along the way?" he looked her up and down, "Can you heal yourself?"  
  
"Yeah, but I've never  _died_  before, so I don't know if I can bring myself back."   
  
"Well, then here's what we do-" Grue began.  
  
"Undersiders! I see them!" shouted a man with a gun, into a radio, he then began repeating his location into the radio.  
  
"Shit." Lisa said, "Lung is right behind them."  
  
"Let's fight him!" Bitch said, "If we have Goner healing us, then we can beat him!"  
  
Grue shook his head, "No way, even if she can keep us alive, I don't want to get roasted tonight."   
  
"...How about just me and Bitch? We'll distract Lung, and the rest of you can use the opportunity to escape."   
  
"I'm not going to let you just..." Lisa put a hand on his shoulder, "-no."  
  
"She's telling the truth. She can really bring back the dead, just as easily as she could fix the TV." she looked to Bitch, "We'll need Judas and Brutus with us, they're the only ones trained enough to follow our directions, and we need to ride them out of here."  
  
"...Fine. Treat them okay, and feed them when you're home."   
  
"Okay. Just... both of you come home safe, got it?"  
  
"Sure." Goner agreed, beginning to slip off of Brutus, when Alec shook his head.  
  
"Nah, don't bother. You two get out of here." I'm sticking around to see Miss Monotone beat up Lung."  
  
"Come on." Tattletale urged Judas forward.   
  
The three remaining watched them go, and Alec turned to look at Taylor, he was grinning widely, "So, just us sociopaths left? Fun!" he turned Brutus around, and Bitch moved Angelica after them as they headed to where Lung would be waiting for them.  
  
Taylor smiled.

* * *

Screws impaled ABB to the walls. Spasming fingers and twitching muscles turned their guns on each other. Dogs charged through without hesitation, sending people flying.   
  
  
Lung turned the corner with the last of his men, and beheld the carnage, "You  **fuckers!"**    
  
He started picking up speed, running to tackle them, but with every step, he was a little bigger, a little shinier, and flame was glinting along his fingertips. Throwing flame forward, Regent swept with his scepter, and Lung's arm was sent wide, the flame blasting harmlessly against a wall, scorching through a bit of ABB graffiti. The dogs met him head-on, the dinosaurs forcing him to the ground, only to find him growing larger and burning hotter the more they bit and chewed at him.   
  
Then, Taylor jumped off Brutus, landing on Lung's chest, the impact pushing him onto his back on the ground. She summoned two screws, and shoved them through his arms, pinning him to the ground. She then took a few steps back and thrust two more oversized screws and plunged them through his calves.   
  
Once he was properly attached to the floor, all three were forced back by a massive explosion of fire. Bitch urging Angelica against her intincts toward the fire to grab Taylor in the giant jaws and drag away her already-smoldering body. In a moment, the burns were gone, both on Taylor, the dogs, Bitch, and Regent.   
  
"UNDURSHIDURS!" he roared as he grew larger, the steel scales pushing past his arms, his shoulders, and going up his neck beneath his metal dragon mask, forcing the two screws out of his arm with a meaty squelch sound as he pushed himself up. The holes in his arms were already closing, and the flames were doing their work on the street, making the tar itself bubble.   
  
"He's pissed!" Alec said unhelpfully.   
  
Lung reached down, ripping the screws from his legs, only to find two more embedded in his head, and then for Angelica and Brutus to bite down on a leg each and drag the gang boss across the street and slam him into a building.   
  
The dogs backed off, and the three of them watched as Lung pulled himself back up, the two screws being pushed out of his head by his regenerating skull.   
  
"MUDDURFUGERSH! AH'LL _KEL_ 'YU"

* * *

She healed the burns the dogs received, fixing the rest of the ABB while she was at it. At this point, Lung was going to get out of control, and they didn't need to be pinned down right now. She watched as gang members ran off, and turned her attention back to Lung.  
  
He was almost the definition of an elite. A power that made him stronger the more danger he was in, the ability to regenerate from anything. A gang leader, rich and surrounded by women, too powerful for the law to contain him, his simple existence leaned towards beating down others without ever losing.   
  
She  _could_  just make him not exist.   
  
But she didn't like killing people, not permanently. No, what she wanted was for Lung to be  _miserable._ She looked him up and down as he got taller and taller, scales burgeoning across his whole body. His fingers had sharpened to points, and a tail was beginning to snake out of the burned remains of his pants-   
  
Oh wow. He was naked.  _Nice._    
  
He launched a massive fireball at them. Regent screamed as he fell off Brutus, and Taylor was just as much caught up in it. Brutus jumped like a shot, howling as he returned to Bitch's side where she was riding Angelica and leaped out of the way.   
  
Bitch stared, for a moment, at their unmoving bodies, before roaring in rage, pointing at Lung, "Brutus. Kill. Angelica, kill."  
  
Both dogs rushed forward, wrestling with the still-growing dragon man and forcing him down, slamming him to the floor over and over, creating a crater, and burning bit by bit through the dogs mutated tough skin. But they wouldn't let up, shaking him, biting him, pulling at him.   
  
And then, to Bitch's relief, Taylor got back up again, perfectly fine, not even singed, "Well, that was as good a test of any. Oh, Alec."   
  
Alec got up, and stumbled a bit, before laughing nervously, "What the fuck."   
  
Taylor narrowed her eyes, "Well, now you went and actually killed one of my friends." she said, pointing at Lung, flinging a screw.   
  
It pierced one of his feet, causing him to fall to one knee just as he got up, letting Angelica at his neck. The dog dragged him to the floor, and Taylor walked over, ignoring the flames, and stood on his chest.   
  
"IYALL  _ **FRY**_  YU" Lung managed through his transformed lips. "HYU'R GNNA regret this you bitch-" he blinked at his own voice. He then realized that the weight of the girl, which had been almost nonexistant when he was almost fifteen feet tall and made of metal, was suddenly a lot more present. She was also closer- "RRGGH!" -and had driven screws through his arms again, cutting off all sensation from them.   
  
Already, he was ramping up again, but he had to start from the beginning all over again.   
  
She made another screw, and then brought it across Lung's head, rattling his head. And again. Suddenly, steel scales began to erupt around his jaw, flames flickering from inside his mouth, already he was swelling in size- when suddenly he screamed out, and stopped moving beside the ragged fall and rise of his chest. Taylor looked over to where Alec was squatting by Lung's leg, his scepter pulling away from Lung's skin.   
  
"We beat him." Bitch breathed.   
  
"Hah!" Alec laughed, a single, harsh, note. "Ugh. It doesn't hurt any more, but that's one hell of a hard way to die." he kicked Lung again, "What now?"  
  
"Now, we get out of here." they turned, looking to Lisa and Brian, who were now in one of their vans. Judas, having reverted back to a much smaller size away from Bitch, was also in the van. "Armsmaster is heading this way."   
  
"You came back for us?" Taylor asked, "We would have been fine."  
  
"We're a team, sorry." Brian said, "Even if- you're invulnerable, or something, that doesn't mean we should just leave you behind to fight alone. Come on. Just because you guys could beat Lung, doesn't mean that it's a smart idea to go against the whole Protectorate."   
  
"We could win." Bitch said, "We really could."  
  
"I know, but it's not worth it, okay? We already have enough to celebrate, and talk about. Let's head back to the base, okay?"  
  
"Sure." Taylor said, her face twitching a bit. "...Thanks for coming back for us." she undid Bitch's transformation of Angelica and Brutus, and Bitch and Alec led the two dogs into the van, Taylor hopping in afterwards and shutting the door behind them, leaving Lung cruficied to the concrete, unconscious. 

* * *

Armsmaster's motorcycle rushed down the street on autopilot as he balanced on top of it, using his hands to swing his signature weapon. It crackled with electricity as he slammed it into an Oni Lee- one who thankfully didn't collapse into ash, simply writhing from the shock before falling into blissful unconsciousness. Velocity then followed, stopping in front of the collapsed Lee and blasting him in the head, hands, and legs with containment foam. He turned into a blur as he pulled a multitude of weapons away- motions that were becoming practiced, by now.   
  
After all, the other ones they captured kept their weapons in the same spots. This made the seventh that the two of them had taken down.   
  
Adding that to the six that were still fighting Triumph and Dauntless, not to mention each other, and the five  _corpses,_  that added up to 18  _confirmed_  Oni Lees. But based on the signs, there might be even more who already escaped the area before the Protectorate arrived.   
  
More than that, there were reports that Lung was fighting the Undersiders, and if he didn't hurry, he might end up only finding four scorched corpses. "I'm going ahead to challenge Lung." he told Velocity, "Go help Dauntless deal with any they capture." he ordered.   
  
"Got it." the speedster turned into a blur, moving in a moment over to where most of the fighting was still ongoing. Dropping down to his bike, he revved it, speeding ahead towards the docks.  
  
He patrolled the alleys at high speed, almost too fast for him to take in, before his visor alerted him of something he just shot past. Slowing down his bike and reversing, he pulled back into the utterly wrecked alleyway. Flames still went strong in nearby piles of trash. But what took up his attention was Lung.   
  
Unconscious, bleeding, and  _crucified._  
  
He stared at it for another moment, before he pulled himself back into the reality of the situation. He walked forwards, and injected the gang boss with a specialized cocktail of tranquilizers meant for high-power regenerators and biokinetics. If anything on Earth could keep Lung dead on his feet, it was that.   
  
Sure that the boss would  _stay_  asleep, he tried to pull at the huge screws in the man's arms. But, as a screw usually acted, he supposed, it had, well, screwed into the concrete. He didn't have the strength to pull it free. Gritting his teeth, he began the bloody task of turning each one, slowly, until he could pull it free from the concrete, and from the gang leader. Then, he pulled Lung to his bike, and made a beeline for the PRT building, and for the brute containment cells.   
  
Tonight... Tonight was a strange one. He would have to get the Protectorate Thinkers to have a look at the multiple Oni Lees to see what they made of it. Currently, the best theory was that Bakuda made some kind of duplication bomb- the ABB didn't have any other Tinkers, especially not any with cloning capability. But that didn't explain why the Oni Lees were having a death match.   
  
And now, someone defeated Lung, and left him in an utterly  _brutal_  position. Sure, the man had a known healing factor, but brutality was brutality. It reminded him a bit of Shadow Stalker, pinning people to a wall.   
  
Wait...  
  
Shadow Stalker...  
  
She had mentioned, that the disappearing girl, Goner, attacked her and her friends with giant screws, hadn't she?  
  
He tried to imagine the thin, frail girl, who had been abused and suffered through M/S protocols while being utterly patient and understanding with them- he had felt intensely guilty, knowing Shadow Stalker had been tormenting her without anyone knowing. And then she suddenly vanished from all their records, even the most secure- his own armor's cameras the only thing that hadn't been touched, the girl's own father having had his memories erased.   
  
He tried to imagine her doing  _this_  to one of the most feared Parahumans in Brockton Bay. "...Console." he said, activating his radio, "I've secured Lung."  
  
"You took him down, on your own? What about the people he was fighting?" Kid Win asked.   
  
"...I have reason to believe he was fighting the Undersiders at some point- there are imprints from Hellhound's dogs, but signs point to Goner having been the one to deal the final blow and contain him."  
  
"Goner? The memory manipulator?"  
  
"Shadow Stalker mentioned that she possessed a blaster power- the ability to create screws that were launched with enough force to knock her into a wall. This was disregarded at the time- and then later on we believed it was an illusion caused by Goner, but Lung had been attached to the ground by two oversized screws. This points to her ability having been real."  
  
"...Attached?"  
  
"They were forced through his arms and then into the concrete."  
  
"Eugh."  
  
"Be professional." he barked, "Now call it in. I need the Brute Containment Cells ready and operating. And some M/S tests for Lung, once he wakes up."  
  
"G-got it."


	5. Undersiders 1.5

"Reputation, huh?" Tattletale asked, "...How about Brockton Bay Central Bank. And since it's obviously not a money issue, I think the others would appreciate it if you gave them a nice bonus on top of whatever we steal."  
  
Coil considered it. These talks went so much easier when he could have Tattletale here with him to torture information out of in one Timeline, while he dealt with her on the phone in the other. But after yet  _another_ close call with Goner... well, he was more-or-less hands free with the Undersiders now, no matter the Timeline. Goner kept him trapped for six hours, filled with Thinker Headaches, and more and more creative methods of suicide, not to mention all the times  _she_  killed him, and then brought him back again, forcing the closed Timeline open again and again...  
  
It took a long time before he convinced her he'd never torture any of the Undersiders ever again.  
  
He had even  _meant_  it. Taking them under suspicious circumstances led to Goner investigating, which led to Goner forcing her way into his base, which led to Goner fucking with his power. And then there was that  _one_ timeline when she somehow found  _Noelle-_  
  
He shuddered.  
  
That could  _never_  be allowed to happen in any Timeline he was going to keep. Not under  _any_  circumstances.  
  
"Boss?"  
  
"Hm?" oh yes, Tattletale. The Undersiders would make for a good diversion, especially if Goner wiped out the bank like she did the Casino safe. "Apologies, I had to check on a message. You wanted a bonus, you'll get a bonus. Just make sure it grabs attention. The Protectorate and New Wave should be out of town, which means at  _most_  all you'll have to deal with are the Wards." The PRT and police would have a lot more to do than look into a random little girl who happened to not come home after school.  
  
Soon, he would have his pre-cog, and his plan would become that much more secure.  
  
"That should be fine." Tattletale replied.

* * *

  
Twelve Oni Lee had been captured by the PRT, six had been killed- five by each other, and one by Triumph when his sonic scream accidently triggered one of the Oni Lee's grenades.  
  
The remaining eight, however, had come to a consensus, in a way. It was a rather simple decision, but one that had been hard to make all the same. They were  _all_  Oni Lee.  
  
Bakuda hadn't been pleased, when she heard about what happened to him. She had a look-over, but couldn't find anything with her gear that could help her identify if any of them were the original, or whether there was anything wrong with them. And then, whe she told him about how Lung had been captured, Oni Lee wasn't pleased either.  
  
The Undersiders had to pay, for what had happened, and then the Protectorate would feel the wrath of the ABB.  
  
Oni Lee was, by nature, a follower. He did as Lung said, because Lung was the one with ambition, the one with power. Bakuda, similarly, had ambition. In another time and place, if he still was only one, a single demon, he would have followed her lead. But it was... strange, having the other seven around. They understood him. He didn't speak much, as few people understood the way he though, but his fellow clones- they had long since lost track of who came before or after -were people he could speak with. Open up to. Oni Lee knew that Oni Lee would understand, no matter what they were discussing.  
  
As they discussed, they also sparred, and moved, and found that they were far more dangerous together than Oni Lee alone had ever been. They were more confident, with more direction, surprisingly. Alone with his thoughts, Oni Lee could barely muster anything even coming close to a goal- he was a knife in the dark, where Lung wanted him to be. But bouncing his throughts against himself, over and over, they realized as a group that they...  _wanted_  things... that they did have passion, deep down. And that together, they could muster the ambition to lead the ABB.  
  
They needed to free Lung, as well as the other Oni Lee, from Protectorate containment. They needed to re-assert to the city that the ABB was not to be trifled with. And the Undersiders had to die.  
  
Oni Lee  _was_  a follower, but the will he followed now was his own, as determined by all eight of him. Together, they were  _Orochi._  The eight-headed dragon. The ABB needed a dragon to control it, but Bakuda was no dragon. A single Oni Lee was no dragon. But Orochi, together,  _could be_  that dragon.  
  
  
"...What's with the new masks?" Bakuda asked, entering the room only to hesitate when she saw the eight of them standing in a circle in the room, with a single point open for her, "Are those Lung's extras?" Lung... well, he tended to destroy whatever he had on him every time he used his powers. Everything he owned, he owned in bulk out of necessity.  
  
Lung would not miss eight of them.  
  
"Bakuda." Ichi began, "We've come to an epiphany. From now on we are not the Oni. We are Orochi." he said, "We have been making plans, to retrieve Lung, to take revenge. We would appreciate your input."  
  
"...You're renaming yourselves? Fine, whatever, I guess you can't all be Oni Lee." she looked at the helmets, and saw the characters for 1 through 8 in Japanese.  
  
"We are Orochi now." Nana said.  
  
"We want revenge first, to prove the ABB remains strong despite the chaos." Go said.  
  
"The Undersiders must die." Roku said, "And their deaths should be spectacular. You will make this happen personally."  
  
"Hey, I don't take orders from yo-" eight hands drew eight grenades, with eight sets of fingers alighting on eight pins. Bakuda stopped in her tracks, looking at them, "-okay. No need to get... to get violent here. We both just want what's best for the ABB, right?"  
  
"Correct. And the best thing for the ABB is to be led by someone with the strength of a dragon." San, said, "We have  _become_  that dragon. The eight-headed dragon, Orochi."  
  
"So, the Undersiders. I can get them, sure." she said, "Any requests?"  
  
"We want them to be visible. Do not simply blow them to bits. Make them statues, or freeze them in time, or encase them. So long as our foes can look to the entire team and see what has become of them. Make them a reminder of the ABB's power." Ni.  
  
"And be careful." Hachi said, "The Undersiders have a new member, the one who is responsible for this happening to us."  
  
"That Goner chick? The one who knocked out Lung for Armsmaster?"  
  
"Yes." Shi said, "Be wary of her."  
  
"Sure."

* * *

  
For a few seconds, everything seemed business as usual, and then, suddenly, Grue's darkness flooded the building. Amy stumbled as she suddenly went blind and dizzy, and she dropped to her knees so as to not fall. She was considering what to do, when the darkness shifted position, now simply floating around their generator. When the people inside the lobby turned their heads, they found the security guard groaning on the ground, and saw Tattletale, Grue, and Regent standing in front of them. Tattletale had her gun, and Regent his scepter, both pointed at them. Grue turned to go back behind the desk, presumably to the safe.  
  
"Everyone stay down." Tattletale said, "We're just going to be in and out, and no one has to get hurt."  
  
"Of course, if anyone wants to play hero, that's fun too." Regent said, swiping his scepter menacingly.  
  
Amy didn't move from where she was. She was out of costume, and more than that, her powers weren't meant for combat. But then, she was a superhero, wasn't she? She had a responsibility to try  _something..._ but not while Tattletale and Regent were watching.  
  
Minutes passed, and Tattletale swore under her breath, "Go get the others. Tell them to finish up. We- we take it  _all."_  she ordered Regent, and Amy realized that this might be her chance as Tattletale was left alone... she began to move slowly towards Tattletale, only to stop when the girl met her eyes. Amy stared into brilliant green, and Tattletale's expression changed as she realized who she was looking at.  
  
"...Well, well." she said, "Miss Dallon. Sort of."  
  
"Look, you obviously didn't know I would be in here. But you should know that if you mess with me, both New Wave and the Protectorate will smash through those walls to get at me, right?"  
  
Regent returned with Grue and Hellhound, along with her monster dogs as well as a girl that Amy didn't recognize. A new member? She was staring at Amy intently. Her expression was harmless enough, but her gaze made her feel nervous. "What's going on?" Grue asked.  
  
"The Wards are gathering." she said, "They're in front of the bank, because they have the other exits covered by now. The van's probably already been found, so we'll have to get out on the dogs." she then pointed at Amy, who backed away on instinct, "Second, Panacea is here."  
  
"Oh? The second-best healer in the city?" Regent asked. Despite his mask, it was impossible to think he wasn't smirking because of his smug tone.  
  
Amy frowned.  _Second_  best? Oh sure, she might be a crappy superhero- she'd never be able to go out like Vicky or the Wards and punch people out in a moment or fly or blast things apart, but she knew she was the best healer on the planet. It was what she  _did.  
  
"Regent." _Grue growled.  
  
"Can we take her with us?" the new girl asked.  
  
"What- no!" Grue said, "What would you even want to do, hold her hostage? The Undersiders don't do that."  
  
"I think she could be a good friend." Amy felt a chill down her spine as her eyes locked onto the girls. They were a deep brown, almost black. It made her look like she didn't have pupils, and hid whatever emotions she would have normally shown.  
  
"Not right now." Grue said, "Come on, Tattletale, strategy."  
  
She turned towards the hostages, "All of you, stand up. You're getting out of here." she said pleasantly, "Were going to open the doors, and then you're all going to run, as far as you can, until Grue's darkness hits you. When that happens, lie down so you don't trip. Nobody gets hurt, okay?" she turns to the others, "We'll have to fight."  
  
"No." Grue said, "If we get into a drawn-out fight-"  
  
"We don't have a choice. We have to go out past the front, and that means-"  
  
"ATTENTION UNDERSIDERS. LET THE HOSTAGES AND PANACEA GO, AND SURRENDER."  
  
"-a fight. That'd be them." Lisa said, moving closer to the window and looking out, "Bitch, you'll want to go for the one in Clockblocker's armor. Aegis and Clockblocker switched places."  
  
"Fine." he looked to Regent and the new girl, "Regent you're with me, Goner-" Amy followed his look, and then jumped when she realized the new girl, Goner was behind her.  
  
"You're like me, aren't you? Everyone treats you like trash, using your powers for their own benefit, to the point where you can't even think of not helping them. If you were doing it because you loved it- I'd hate you, but that's just..." she smiled, "Miserable. Want to come with us?"  
  
"Come with- you're  _villains!"_  
  
"You wouldn't have to heal anyone any more." she said, creating a screw, and then putting it through her own skull in a burst of gore.  _Brain damage- I can't-_ Amy reached out to touch the girl, then pulled back before she made contact. She... she couldn't do anything anyway- if she- she couldn't just  _let_  someone die in front of her!  
  
One of the other hostages started screaming.  
  
"God damn it Goner." Grue moaned, "It's like having two of  _him,_  except she just  _does_  it-"  
  
Then she realized that Goner was still standing. She pulled the screw free, and then squatted in front of Amy, before waving a hand over her face, making the wound vanish. "I'm the team healer. You'll get to do anything you want." she looked up, "As long as Grue doesn't whine about it. Your powers make you miserable, so why not just use them the way  _you_  want?"  
  
"I'm-" she had to admit, the idea was... tempting. In a really strange way. She knew she could do more than heal, and- and if they didn't need her to heal them, then... "No."  
  
"Aw." Goner pulled away, standing up. "Lost again, then. Sorry Grue, where do you want me?"  
  
"...Support us from behind. Don't hit any of the Wards  _directly,_  but you're fine to get rid of Kid Win's weapons and hoverboard."  
  
Lisa helped Amy up, and then started doing the same for other hostages, "Everyone! Remember, run as far as you can, then stop running when the darkness hits, or you'll likely trip. Lie down so you don't get hit in the crossfire."  
  
Amy watched as Grue and Regent shoved the doors open. "Go, go, go!"  
  
People ran through, and she looked back at Goner. Her powers, they didn't make her miserable, she made herself miserable. Because, because she wasn't good enough. Because she wasn't everywhere. Because Vicky lived and breathed  _hero,_  while she had to force herself to do the right thing.  
  
The hostages fled, and Amy almost ran with them, but at the last moment, she turned and tagged Regent's bare neck. The moment her finger touched, she immediately became aware of his entire biology, and started telling his body to sleep. He crumpled immediately, and she turned to run anyway, joining the other hostages before any of the Undersiders can react.  
  
She might not be a good hero, but she still  _was_  one. She began running, just like all the other hostages.  
  
"Bitch!" she turned at the shout, only to see the massive form of Hellhound's dinosaur-dog hybrid charging towards her. She thought she was going to die, up until the moment a familiar golden flash knocked the dog to the side. She smiled as Vicky shoved the dog across the street. The other Wards began to advance on them as well, to help.  
  
"Damn it!" Grue shouted, before sending out a wave of darkness.  
  
Amy once again went blind and felt the sudden dizziness, she dropped to the ground. She wasn't sure how long it had lasted. She felt the ground shake a few times. Then, finally, the darkness clears away and she can see again. In front of her, stabbed into the ground with a screw, was a post-it note with a telephone number scribbled on it. Under the number...  
  
 _Wanna hurt something for a change?  
\- G_  
  
Ripping it away, she blinked as the screw just- vanished. Standing up, she stared at the note, before crumpling it into a ball. She moved to throw it, before deciding to stick it into her pocket instead. She'd... she'd throw it away at home. No need to litter.  
  
Walking over to the Wards, she told Vicky that she was fine, trying to calm her down, and assure her she was fine, and then of course she had to heal the Wards.  
  
Only when she finished with Gallant, the last, did she realize that she had technically fought a supervillain, and won.  
  
She hadn't...  _hurt_  him, exactly, but...  
  
She knocked him out with a touch. Maybe... maybe she  _could_  go out, with the others. Be a  _real_ hero, not just the healer who doesn't heal enough.  _Maybe Mom would appreciate her, then._

* * *

Brian was scared.  
  
He just couldn't wrap his head around her. She barely ever changed expression, he couldn't predict what she was going to do before she did it. She had a mentality similar to Alec's, but where with Alec he could give him a punch and that would usually be the end of it, with Taylor, it just  _wouldn't._  She was the most powerful Cape in the group, easily. If he hit her, there was a non-zero chance he'd end up with a screw though his chest. And even if she  _didn't_  kill him, the bruise wouldn't be there in a moment either way. Like Regent said, she had won the superpower lottery.  
  
Today had helped prove that as well. She didn't have a problem with following his orders usually, but when she got in a mood to do something, there was a good chance she would do it no matter what he  _told_  her to do. Asking Panacea to join them? Stabbing herself in the head in front of a bunch of civilians, like that  _wouldn't_ escalate the situation.  
  
Worse yet, Bitch would have her back in  _everything._  Alec too, nowadays. He had been grateful for her influence on Bitch at first, as she was calmer, more understanding, less willing to fight him on any decision. He had been glad the girl found a friend. Alec too, seemed to get along with her. She joined him in playing video games and watching TV, utterly engrossed where Brian thought when she wasn't with Bitch taking care of the dogs.  
  
And whatever Taylor saw in Bitch and Alec, she saw in Panacea too. For a second there, Brian almost thought that Panacea would agree to join them. And where would they go from there? They'd have the entire Protectorate on their ass, plus New Wave, for Mastering her. Because why the hell would Panacea agree to join a bunch of thieves? In a world that made sense, the answer was that they Mastered her.  
  
Lisa, at least, still had his back.  
  
As they went out to the storage container that Lisa said their mysterious boss left their bonuses in, he was about to get her attention, to ask her if there was a time they could talk privately about the others, when a series of explosions around them caught him off guard.  
  
"Everyone, on the dogs!" he shouted.  
  
"You're not going anywhere, Undersiders!" a filtered voice shouted, and Grue turned towards the source of it turning the corner, Bakuda, sitting in a jeep. More ABB members with guns were with her, piling out of the car. "You messed with the wrong gang! You think you can fuck with  _us_  and live?" she turned a rocket launcher at them.  
  
Grue put down a ring of darkness around them, obscuring the enemy's aim. Bitch was already ramping up the dogs, when he heard the sound of her launcher firing and barked "Get down!"  
  
Everyone dropped as a grenade suddenly shot itself through the darkness, over them, and back through the darkness on the other side. With a terrible noise, the ground shook and Brian stared at the spot of his darkness that had been caught in the strange field. Where the rest of his darkness moved like gas, what had been caught in the center of it seemed to have flash-frozen.  
  
It collapsed, shattering, along with a few dozen storage crates and whatever was inside it.  
  
"Run!" he shouted.  
  
Bakuda laughed cruelly, "Well, that was lucky it didn't hit any of you." she changed her aim, while whispering orders into her radio.  
  
The men with the guns began to open fire, and Brian was about to do as what he knew Bakuda wanted- to have them charge down the relatively open path, where Bakuda would have a clear shot, but where'd they be safe from the bullets.  
  
But...  
  
He glanced at Goner, who was looking just as passive as always, clinging to Bitch as they rode, and then back at the pile of frozen shards.  
  
"Keep going!"  
  
"What?" Lisa asked, shocked, "We can't go  _towards_  them!"  
  
"We'll-" he bit back a hiss of pain as the bullet slammed into him. The dogs were made of tougher stuff, he knew, and they kept going even under fire. More impacts spread across his body, and it was all he could do to keep his grip on the dog. "Just- keep going!" he shouted. He threw back his hands, spreading darkness in their wake and in front of him. Massive amounts of it spilled in every direction, the shooters calming down now that they couldn't see where they were shooting.  
  
Then, another explosion rattled out, a huge burst of wind nearly flinging him from his ride, and blowing away his darkness along with anything that weighed less than ten pounds in every direction. Coughing, he realized that Goner had finally fixed him. His suit didn't even have any holes.  
  
Sighing with relief as they left the area, and the ABB, behind, he focused on the road in front of him, putting out more darkness. "Follow my lead!" he shouted to Bitch. The dogs were used to his darkness. He knew that scent didn't change through it, and they would follow on instinct.  
  
Leading them away, he turned his head at the sound of an engine roaring. Bakuda, on her jeep, had made chase. Another ABB was in the driver seat, and Bakuda was standing in the passenger seat, bracing herself against the speed with a hand on the windshield, and using the other to aim her rocket launcher.  
  
She fired, and he prayed, hoping that the darkness would obstruct them enough to mess with her aim.  
  
He winced as he heard the sound of the impact behind them, and he urged Brutus forward, to move faster-  
  
He heard a  _whump_ sound as the field expanded in a moment. Looking behind him, his heart began to beat a mile a minute as he saw the field cover Lisa and Judas, and they just- stopped. Trapped in a time bubble. A bubble that was still growing. Goner and Bitch, on Angelica, were gone next. It was just him and Regent on Brutus, now, and the field was still growing. It had only been three seconds and already-!

* * *

Bakuda ordered the man to slow her jeep, watching as the darkness cleared away. She stared at the pitch-black bubble, and cursed to herself. Goddamn Grue had made it so that Oni Lee- or Orochi, whatever the hell they wanted to call themselves, wouldn't get their example.  
  
The car came to a stop in front of the field, and she looked at it, feeling proud all the same. The sheer size of it was perfect, big enough to catch the entire group at once.  
  
Well, mission accomplished. She  _knew_  that she didn't have to hire Uber and Leet for this kind of thing. Dismounting and walking around the semi-spherical field, she looked closely at the edges, wondering if there was some other kind of exotic effect, or if it truly was a time-stop field.  
  
Then, it flickered, and popped.  
  
Abruptly, the darkness kept on expanding, swamping over her.  
  
She never saw it coming as Brutus bowled her over, stepping on her in the process.  
  
The Undersiders kept going, and Bakuda was left on the ground, feeling half-dead.  _"How_  the fuck?" she rasped.

* * *

Goner grinned.  
  
That had been interesting.


	6. Orochi Interlude

Orochi teleported as one in front of the PRT building, tossing aside their telescopes and drawing various weapons. Soon, they began their assault. Suddenly, they were all inside the lobby, and then there were more, and more, as all eight continued teleporting.  
  
The PRT soldiers were gunned down, or brought down by knife blade, while more Orochi forced the doors open and threw any civilians and non-armored employees out into the street- literally throwing.  
  
Alarms began to blare, and shutters began to close, until Orochi appeared at each window and dropped a grenade. Then, the Orochi gathered at the elevators. They were tinker-tech constructions, built to withstand conventional weapons and attempts to force them open.  
  
However, as one Orochi drew out a very colorful and complex-looking bomb that had been kept in a specialized case, and attached it to the elevator doors with some putty, the PRT would realize that not all of Orochi's weapons were 'conventional'.  
  
They teleported back outside as one, and watched as a massive fireball engulfed the lobby, the impact of the bomb blasting glass from windows and obliterating almost the entire first floor of the building. For a moment, the eight gangsters wondered if Bakuda had gone overboard and cost them the mission- how would they rescue Lung if the entire PRT building were to collapse?  
  
But soon, the smoke cleared, and the building was still standing. Teleporting back in, the Orochi left clones behind to provide covering fire- more PRT were swarming out of the building's other exits. Some were wounded from the explosions, but others were fresh.  
  
The real Orochi stopped at the elevator, looking up and down the elevator shaft. Unlike some other gangs, the ABB didn't have anyone who could do any real hacking, and so the PRT building's layout was something of a mystery.  
  
They would just have to search all of it.  
  
The Orochi began moving up and down the shaft, planting more mines- some conventional, some were Bakuda-made, -on the closed elevator doors. They would soon get access to the entire building. Teleporting back into the lobby, they detonated the shaft, sending a rumbling wave through the entire building.  
  
"Stand down!" a boy shouted.  
  
One of the Orochi turned their head in time to teleport behind the flying teenager collided with him- the clone burst into ash from the impact, but Aegis, leader of the Wards, didn't seem troubled in the slightest by this. Whipping around, he circled the room at high speed in his flight. The other Wards began making themselves present as well, more armored PRT rushing out of other exits.  
  
One Orochi dodged under an ice beam from one of Kid Win's ray-gun devices, and tossed over what Bakuda had simply labeled "for other tinkers". The small device beeped, and then exploded in three different ways. The child screamed as he was dragged towards the epicenter, his hoverboard, armor, and guns shuddering and coming apart as tiny pieces of them were pulled towards the center of the bomb, while electrical pulses spread out around him.  
  
Another found himself suddenly terrified, fleeing for his life in the face of an armored knight, but he was grabbed by one of his brothers, who forced the effect to stop by tossing a grenade at Gallant and making him focus on a different task than using his powers, namely, running from the bomb before it went off.  
  
The Orochi quickly found that their plans of shooting any of the Wards or PRT became very difficult when Vista forced their bullets to curve along improbable angles and smash into each other, or redirect harmlessly towards the scorched walls.  
  
It was chaos. Pure and simple.  
  
But as much as Orochi enjoyed it, they had a mission.  
  
"Roku, Nana, Hachi!" Ichi shouted, "You three will hold back the Wards!"  
  
"Yes!" came a simultaneous grunt from the three. The other five, knowing what that meant, teleported into the shaft, and then began going to work on the rest of the building.  
  
Soon, their radios crackled to life, "Prison cells are deep below!" one of the Orochis shouted, "Ignore the upper levels!"  
  
"Everyone." Ichi said, "Break out Lung, under any circumstances. Our other copies are second priority. But an opportunity has presented itself." Ichi didn't bother fighting most of them as he teleported his way through the offices. Where the most soldiers were clustered, he knew, was where the PRT's commanding officers would be. The PRT dared to hold his leader captive? Then he would pay his revenge upon  _their_  leader.  
  
He teleported over them, and left his clones to cause chaos behind him.  
  
The armored guards were standing in front of a large door, which was protected by a shutter. Ichi pulled the pin on his grenade, and then teleported four times in as many moments, before returning to his first spot, and throwing the grenade. His clones all dropped their own, and explosions ripped through the hall, and even tore through the shutters.  
  
Containment foam sprayers activated, to put out the flames of the explosion, and to contain him, but he didn't give it the time. He teleported to right outside the shutter, looking inside, and seeing an obese woman sitting in the chair on the other side. He teleported into the room, letting the hall fill with containment foam.  
  
He was behind her already, his knife drawn to slit her throat-  
  
Piggot didn't even turn her chair, having simply brought her pistol up from where held it in her lap, and firing three times behind her.  
  
Ichi fell to the ground, dead, but the soldiers inside weren't taking any chances, coating him in containment foam.  
  
"God  _damn_  it all." Piggot muttered.

* * *

"Oni Lee?" Lung said, looking up at someone wearing one of his own steel masks looking down at him through a heavily reinforced window.  
  
Suddenly, the man was next to Lung, "We call ourselves Orochi, now, Lung." Oni Lee- or Orochi, he supposed, said. "Please begin ramping up."  
  
"Wait-" already the alarm systems were activating, foam sprayers emerging from compartments in the walls and splattering everything in the cell with the quickly-expanding substance.  
  
"Damn it!" Orochi growled, before thumbing at his bag, but it was too late, foam had engulfed them both.

* * *

The three who had been fighting the Wards escaped without much issue, once they saw their comrades return from the elevator shaft. To their disappointment, Lung was not among them, and one of their own was gone, although several more Oni Lee in prison uniforms had come with them.  
  
"We have failed." Shi said.  
  
"Then we go." They teleported away, and the Wards let them go, bloodied and exhausted.  
  
In the end, the attack had been a failure. They had lost Ichi and San, but had freed six more copies from their less secure prisons- after all, the PRT could simply neutralize Oni Lees by blinding them, and they were not heartless enough to do so permanently- as such, it had been a simple matter of breaking in, destroying their cuffs and chains, and breaking off their helmets.  
  
[The Orochi](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu) were not pleased. They would have to resort to Bakuda's plan, then, and hold the city itself captive with terror.

* * *

"I want them Birdcaged." Piggot growled.  
  
She was, of course, referring to the seven Oni Lee in containment and Lung. Tonight had been a  _travesty._  Good men, far too many, were dead and would need to be replaced. There was a  _massive_  amount of damage spread through the entirety of the PRT building.  
  
"It shouldn't be an issue." the Chief Director said on the other end of the call, "Oni Lee technically didn't have three strikes according to the rules- but with destruction on this level, it shouldn't be hard to push it through."  
  
"And I want a kill order on the twelve Oni Lee at large. And Bakuda." she was sick and tired of the ABB, and tonight had pushed that patience beyond the brink, as far as she was concerned.  
  
"That... would a bit harder to push through-" BOOM "-what was that?"  
  
"Damn." Piggot muttered, "I have a  _guess."_  
  
Already, her phone was buzzing with messages, "Bakuda bombs." Piggot said, staring down at the device, "Going off all over my city. The casualty count is already in the dozens, not counting the dozens of PRT who already died today." she snarled.  
  
Chief Director Costa-Brown frowned, "Piggot." she said sharply.  
  
"...Sorry, Chief Director. I respectfully repeat my request. I believe that Bakuda and Oni Lee- all versions of him, deserve either death or the Birdcage."  
  
"...I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, good luck. I'll see about diverting more support to the ENE branch in the meantime."  
  
"Thank you."


	7. Undersiders 1.6

"Hey, want to help me with something?" Bitch asked.   
  
"Sure." Taylor replied. 

* * *

The dog fighting was already in full swing by the time they arrived. Bitch's dogs, already full-sized and monstrous as anything, smashed through the walls, tossing people here and there. Taylor, hanging behind Bitch, smiled pleasantly as she stuck men to walls and floors like sticking a note to cork-board with a pin.   
  
The dogs were, of course, terrified, but Bitch began to hurry to have her dogs subdue the rabid creatures who wouldn't stand down, and then began having cages dragged to the van. Taylor undid the deaths and the worst wounds that they had caused, but left most of them where they were, with screws still sticking out of them.   
  
With the opposition down, the two girls focused on their task of hauling dogs into vans. A few were in bad enough shape that Bitch had Taylor heal them before they did anything else, and Taylor amazed Bitch a little bit as she removed the memories of a particularly wrathful hound, and another constantly-terrified one, rendering both looking somewhat dull and confused, but much more manageable.   
  
Without too much trouble, they got the dogs to their new home, Bitch's unofficial shelter, and set about integrating them into the rest. Bitch spent a little while testing the two dogs that Taylor had erased the memories of, and decided that it was better than they were before- amnesia wasn't as big of a deal for a dog as it was a human, and this way they wouldn't have to be put down.   
  
Bitch had led her to a few other dogs, and had her do the same thing to them.   
  
All in all, a good night. 

* * *

Somer's Rock, Taylor found, wasn't quite what she expected of neutral grounds between supervillains. She had been imagining something a bit more grand than a run-down bar. Grue went to go sit at the big-boys table, leaving her and the others at their own table. As one of the servers came close, she opened her mouth to speak, when Lisa shook her head, "Write it down. They're deaf."   
  
"Oh." she waited until the girl came close, before attempting to erase any ear injuries, infections, or the like- "Oh, so it's genetic."   
  
Her power didn't  _create_  anything. It  _only_  destroyed. She couldn't destroy whatever caused it, bringing back her hearing, because she had never had hearing.   
  
She wrote down her order, and the girl moved on to the next person. She glanced at Bitch who was busying herself trying to kill Hookwolf with the sheer force of her glare, a challenge that Hookwolf had taken up.  
  
The Empire Eighty-Eight had been the ones to first call the meeting and the first ones to arrive after them, which annoyed her- the most successful, richest, oldest, gets-everything-they-want gang, and one with a whole entire philosophy based on the most annoying and bullshit form of elitism, racism, -but it was worth it to see every villain in the city come together like this. Or at least, the main ones. It was interesting.   
  
Coil was a bit of a stand-out, walking in all by himself, apparently, without any powers, and speaking on more-or-less equal terms with the others despite not being a Cape.   
  
Faultline's Crew was an interesting paradox, though. Their leader took the time to sneer at Tattletale as she passed, and I assumed there was some kind of history there. Looking at Newter and Gregor, she would have pegged them as being just like her. Two people whose powers by definition repulsed everyone around them? Newter because anyone who touched him would faint, and Gregor because of his acid and simple appearance. No one would have blamed them if they accepted the hatred of the world, and began to hate it back, if they were rejected by society. Yet they were... annoyingly positive. Well adjusted. They had found their own family, one with an entirely different philosophy than her own.   
  
She... didn't like the implications, that they had  _learned_  how to be happy. Faultline, she decided, was dangerous. She'd do something nasty to her, if she had the opportunity. Tattletale would probably help her, too. It might be something they could bond over.  
  
The Merchants were a gang after her own heart, and if Bitch hadn't stumbled across her, she knew she would have ended up with them. They were born losers, most of them. Mush practically radiated dissatisfaction with life. The Archer's Bridge Merchants just had a way of bringing together the hopeless, the petty, the failures, and the ones who gave up or were pushed out of decent society. And it  _showed,_  too. Grue, the leader of a small crew of thieves, was allowed at the table by Kaiser, while Skidmark had his chair kicked away to sit at a booth alongside his underlings, despite having the second-largest gang in the Bay.   
  
If the Undersiders ever started getting annoying, she knew where she would go. She wondered if Bitch and Alec would come with her if she did? Based on the way Grue was helping Kaiser trash-talk Skidmark, she knew he wouldn't, not Lisa either.  
  
The Travelers were an interesting addition as well, and she saw some possibility for a few of them. She especially was impressed by the imaginary monster one of them had created. She itched to fight it with her own imaginary toys, but Grue had been  _very_  particular that none of them start a fight here. And after the scare at the bank, she supposed she owed him. He was Rachel's friend, after all. So was Lisa.  
  
As the discussion unfolded, she noticed that Grue was understating what they had done. Everyone knew that the Undersiders had fought Bakuda, and that she was the one who had put Lung in jail, and were pressuring him for info, but Grue apparently didn't want anyone to know that they are (she's) responsible for Oni Lee becoming Oni Lees. Tattletale had begun a whispered running commentary for her benefit on everyone in the room, helping to supply names for the ones she didn't know.   
  
Eventually, a truce was proposed, and more-or-less agreed to. Everyone, heroes, villains, other, against the ABB. No overt crimes to distract the heroes or each other from disposing of the ABB, and other boring ideas.   
  
“Then that’s our major piece of business concluded tonight. Anything else before we go our separate ways? Offers, announcements, grievances?” Coil asked.  
  
Finally, with that matter out of the way, it seemed like the meeting would finally come to an end-  
  
  
“I’ve got a complaint,” said Hookwolf, still glaring at them, "With those two."   
  
Taylor smiled pleasantly as Bitch bristled further. Grue turned to Hookwolf, and his tone was on edge, "What's the issue here?" he asked, glancing back at us. He shook his head at her.  _Please, don't do anything rash._  
  
Taylor's grin widened slightly.   
  
"These psychopaths, Hellhound and the new girl-"  
  
"Bitch." Bitch said, "Only the panty-ass heroes call me Hellhound. It's Bitch."   
  
"Goner." Taylor added, pressing her hand to her chest.   
  
"Yeah she is." one of the Empire Capes muttered.   
  
"You fuckers left my people crucified to the ground! Blood everywhere, bit marks, you wrecked the fucking building. You  _ruined_  the  _lives_  of some of my customers. You two whores should count yourselves lucky I wasn't there!"  
  
Grue stared at the two girls, weighing his options, "...That's the kind of risk you run when-"  
  
 _"Nailed_  to the fucking  _ground!_  I thought the goddamn  **Nine**  were back in town!" Hookwolf snarled, "This isn't just fucking with my business, it's a call to fucking war! You're lucky Kaiser kept me from hunting you whores down-"   
  
"Hookwolf." Kaiser said, his voice cutting through the conversation like the  _smug_  bastard he was, "Grue, we deserve explanations, and reparations. It's not as serious as the Bakuda business, but the Empire can't just let something like that go. We demand restitution. Traditionally, blood or money is required. And with the damage that was done, we're talking a  _lot_  of money." he turned towards the Undersider's table, "Or a lot of blood."  
  
Grue considered it, "I'm not going to stop my teammates from doing what they need to do."  
  
"You mean you  _can't_  stop them."   
  
Grue didn't respond for a bit, "...It's not unusual for Capes to have pet issues. Bitch fucks up people who hurt dogs, it's common knowledge in Brockton Bay."  
  
"And Goner? What was her pet issue? The overwhelming desire to cripple and grievously wound people?" Hookwolf growled before Kaiser could retort.   
  
At that, Goner stood up.   
  
"They're all alive, aren't they?" she asked, "Then what are you complaining about?"  
  
"Grue, control your team." Kaiser said. Grue almost told him to control his, but instead, he turned towards the Undersiders.  
  
"Goner." he said, through grit teeth, "Bitch. Outside. Now." he turned back towards Kaiser, "Let's sit on this until we can give it our full attention." he continued, but Goner had began walking outside, Bitch following, bristling with rage. As they got outside, Bitch bunched up, growling under her breath.   
  
"Want to fuck up their minions?" Goner asked.   
  
Bitch considered it, "...Grue'd yell at us."   
  
"Probably." she turned towards the bar, "Hey, have you ever considered joining the Merchants instead?"  
  
She turned towards Taylor, eyes wide, looking insulted.  
  
"Nevermind." 

* * *

Brian, Lisa, and Alec stalked out of the bar not too long after, Brian making a beeline for Bitch.   
  
Normally, after a stunt like that, he'd have his hand around her throat. To force her to listen to him. To try and force her to listen to him in a way that she understood. He hated doing it, but again and again, it had to happen, she wouldn't learn, wouldn't act any different otherwise.   
  
He was almost about to, too.   
  
But Taylor was watching, her face just as passive as always. Just as unreadable. He wondered if she had that expression when she crucified regular people the same way she did Lung. He had accepted the brutality at the time- Lung was a regenerator, nothing would keep him down forever. But the thought of her doing it to regular people, without hesitation...  
  
Had he stepped too far? Insulted her by giving her an order in front of everyone?  
  
No, he gave her orders all the time. He was the one in charge of the Undersiders, not her. He couldn't back down, he wouldn't let them just get away with anything they wanted, not when they still wanted to call themselves a team. "Do you understand why I'm pissed right now?" he asked them.   
  
"Why we're pissed." Lisa added.   
  
"I'm not pissed." Alec said, "Ow!" he rubbed the bruise, before it vanished courtesy of Taylor. Brian had hit him harder than normal, a little bit of his rage pushing him harder.   
  
"Not now." Brian threatened, "I don't need you undermining me too. Bitch, Goner, why the hell didn't I know about this?"   
  
"What? I thought you knew!" Taylor said, lying outright, "But... why did you have to know?"  
  
"Because you're Undersiders." he said, "And whatever you do while in costume, it reflects on the Undersiders. You made me look weak, in there, I had to defend you, while knowing nothing about what anyone was talking about. You used your screws on regular people? You attacked a dog-fighting ring even with the bombing spree already going on?"  
  
"I help with the dogs." Taylor said, as if that was an explanation, "And those people deserved to be hurt."  
  
"You don't use your screws on regular people." Brian said, harsher, "And you tell us if you're going out to attack something. So we  _know."_  
  
"I shouldn't have to ask permission-" Brian reached forward, to shove her into an alley to make her listen, the way he knew was the only way to get through to Bitch, Taylor or no Taylor. Pushing her in, the other Undersiders followed. He then put a hand to her throat, and shoved her against the wall. He lifted her up, and then, he heard the sound of a screw piercing brick.  
  
He turned his head, "This is the only way she'll listen, I hate doing this but-" Brian began to explain.   
  
"Hm." three more screws were in the wall.   
  
Brian quieted.   
  
They were all quiet. Taylor looked at Alec, and with a motion, Brian stumbled back, his hand twitching and making him drop Bitch back on the ground. "Regent?" he said, surprised.   
  
"...I think I've made a mistake." Taylor said, "Bitch, is he your friend?"  
  
Brian turned towards Bitch, suddenly afraid. If she said no... would he still exist afterwards?  
  
"...Yeah."   
  
He let out a breath.   
  
"Okay then. My bad, I didn't make a mistake joining the Undersiders after all." the screws vanished, and she turned out of the alley.  
  
"...No." Brian said, "You can't have it both ways. If you call yourselves members, both of you, then you need to do what I  _say,_  and you need to think about what's right for the  _group_  over yourselves once in a while."   
  
Bitch glared at him, "...Fine. I'll tell you, next time. But I'm not going to stop."  
  
He turned his gaze on Taylor, "If you're going to be an Undersider, you need to think about what we do. About our reputation. We rely on that. If we're just thieves, bigger groups look the other way. But if we start acting like psychopaths, that draws attention we don't want."  
  
  
Taylor considers it, "...I'll undo it afterwards, if they're regular people."   
  
Brian supposed that was the best deal he was going to get.   
  
Taylor looked towards the bar, "So there's a truce until the ABB stuff is dealt with. Which means we can't fight the Empire until the ABB isn't a threat?"  
  
"That's it in a nutshell." Brian said, feeling relieved.   
  
"Okay. Let's go destroy the ABB so we can destroy the Empire next." Taylor said pleasantly.

* * *

"You're  _what?!"_  Coil snarled.   
  
"Goner wants to take out the ABB." Tattletale said, "She'll do it alone if she has to. And I'm not sure if I can stop her. And the reason she's doing it is so that the treaty can end and she can start going after the Empire with Bitch."  
  
"Could she- no, of  _course_  she could... No. This is a  _good_  thing. Fine, go ahead."  
  
"If Bakuda dies her conscripts-"  
  
"They're goners anyway-" Coil very nearly ended the timeline upon realizing his accidental pun, "-they're dead men walking. But... if Bakuda can be subdued and her detonation devices taken from her, and she were handed over to the Protectorate, it shouldn't be an issue."   
  
"Got it. We should assist then?"  
  
"Pull out if it gets too dangerous." he said, more for her benefit. She didn't know that he knew that Goner could revive the dead, which meant that there was very little reason for them not to move forward with it, "I'll provide you with an optimal time and date to do so. Hold her off until then, but assure her it is happening."  
  
As the phone line hung up, he split the timelines once more. In one, he continued to check on his various ongoing concerns, and in the other, he called for Pitter to bring in his pet.   
  
Miss Alcott had already been successfully hooked on the drug regimen he and Pitter designed. He had already done his morning round of questions, but he kept a few for emergencies each day. "Hello pet." he greeted, "Chances my plan succeeds if the Undersiders attack the ABB?"  
  
"78.932%."  
  
"Chances my plan succeeds if I release the Empire info immediately afterward?"  
  
"62.401 %. It hurts."  
  
"If I wait to release the Empire info until the ABB is comepletely out of the way?"  
  
"80.233 %. I don't think I can do any more questions." the girl said, tired and with an aching head.  
  
He closed down the timeline, opened another, and did the same thing again, mixing and matching dates and various stages of his plans. In the end, he called Tattletale back, telling them to attack on the first of May. By then, he assumed, the Kill Order will have gone through. The Undersiders avoided killing, of course, but a kill order usually came with a bounty attached. If the Undersiders knew that he supported them, and was intentionally helping them sweeten the deal for themselves, he could count on even more loyalty.   
  
After all, if the Undersiders were successful, both in taking out the ABB, and then the Empire, it would put them in already-perfect positions for the next phase of his plan; taking control of the city.


End file.
